Online chat service Discord has announced it will begin testing age verification for some users, joining a growing list of platforms trying to work out who is actually behind the screen.
Online chat service Discord has announced it will begin testing age verification for some users, joining a growing list of platforms trying to work out who is actually behind the screen.
Honestly the more important point to me is that age verification isn’t even desirable.
Teenagers have been accessing adult content since forever. It’s normal to do and we shouldn’t be restricting normal human sexuality. The entire point of the age of consent is to protect kids from predators, not to restrict teenagers from having perfectly normal and healthy sexual interactions.
There is no technical barriers which will protect vulnerable kids from predators. That is a far deeper social issue - mainly that there are kids who don’t have trustworthy adults who care enough about them to prevent it from happening.
Absolutely agree with this. Any age verification mechanism is always about censorship and control, not about helping kids. The only thing that helps kids is them being taken good care of and provided guidance at all levels: in the family, in the school, in the society. But that’s a deeper social problem and no one gives a damn about solving that problem.
Thank you for saying this. It is a point I see too often ignored. Censorship is bad, even if you can do it ‘privately’