@neil A tech journalist that I have a lot is respect for, @acedtect, has always been an advocate for Tim Berners Lee's Solid as a means of identification that allows the citizen retain a modicum of control. I wish the UK government had taken this opportunity to push it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_(web_decentralization_project)

@neil A discussion came up today in the work chat, if I use a false ID (e.g. AI generated image) to bypass this check to allow me to access a service which I am old enough to access anyway, would I commit an offence under the identity documents act 2010 or the fraud act 2006?

Would even testing this lead be in a postion where I could be prosecuted (like testing for vulnerabilities under the CMA)?

How is this different from me using a fake date of birth on sites?

Do we all just need to wait for an actual judgement or will the age verification vendors actual care?

@neil
If they wanted to protect children - and adults - they would ban or tackle algorithmic feeds.

That's what caused the problem and the solution is simple, easy to police and enforce, if a bit more difficult politically.

Instead they are driving small communities onto those corporate platforms which cause the ham. 🤔

@neil Really think about which services you use, with which accounts need verification. Remember that password breach you were in 2 years ago? What if it were an ID breach? Or use a VPN to a sane country.

@neil uk Reddit is going nuts. Also, Reddit now insisting that LGBT subs are all 18+ and need verification.
Yeah, hand over your ID to an American company subject to the patriot act and be on their list of known queers? No thanks.

@neil Im concerned how this will affect decentralised social media like #simplexhttps://simplex.chat #briarhttps://briarproject.org & #cwtchhttps://docs.cwtch.im these services r so decentralised there aren't even servers that facilitate users directly its more like a participatory network infrastructure, its undeniably user-to-user but what are they going to do charge every simplex relay operator? Or every node in a briar mesh? Or r group moderators liable instead?

@neil I've absolutely no intention of agreeing to use any of these age verification services. It'll be interesting to see (a) how much this affects my experience of the web, and (b) how trivial it'll be to circumvent the checks where they do get in the way of what I'm doing.

@neil I'm still struggling to work out what the absolute minimum service that would qualify as “highly effective age assurance” would look like

#OnlineSafetyAct

@neil : Australia is trying to follow suit. I can't wait for even more of the internet to try and grift my PII. 😢