Five EU States To Test Age Verification App To Protect Children (reuters.com) 65
France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, and Greece will pilot an age verification app to better protect children online, as part of the EU's push to enforce its Digital Services Act. Reuters reports: The setup for the age verification app is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallet which will be rolled out next year. The five countries can customize the model according to their requirements, integrate into a national app or keep it separately. The landmark legislation, which became applicable last year, requires Alphabet's Google, Meta, ByteDance's TikTok and other online companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful online content. EU regulators said the new guidelines would help online platforms to tackle addictive design, cyberbullying, harmful content and unwanted contact from strangers.
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this will give permanent unchangeable identifiers to every participant
TFA doesn't say that.
There's no technical reason the identifiers need to be unchangeable.
The app could be designed to issue a different confirmation code for each transaction.
Re:I thought EU was about Privacy and Protection? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sooner or later that database is going to leak and when it does it's going to be a disaster like Ashley madison. In particular a bunch of people who go to gay porn sites are going to commit suicide. Or possibly be murdered.
But at least the private company who stores all of the data is going to make a ton of money off the government contract.
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These countries already have that database. Spain launched its digital personal identity card a month or two ago. The only thing that's new is the obligation for social media companies to use it.
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But that data doesn't track my internet usage.
Just because I have an account with one company doesn't mean I should be forced to have a de facto account with all companies at once. That's getting into mark of the beast territory, even accounting for the fact that that's not what that story was about
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In particular a bunch of people who go to gay porn sites are going to commit suicide. Or possibly be murdered.
We're talking about the EU here, not Saudi Arabia. Most EU member countries actually have rather progressive social attitudes towards same-sex sexual activity.
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In particular a bunch of people who go to gay porn sites are going to commit suicide. Or possibly be murdered.
We're talking about the EU here, not Saudi Arabia. Most EU member countries actually have rather progressive social attitudes towards same-sex sexual activity.
The thing is, most people on this site are Americans and can only think in American terms. So they assume every government is as inept, incompetent, totalitarian and corrupt as theirs is.
Most of these countries already have national ID systems in place. Ultimately it's going to amount to a large amount of fuck all as porn sites that host themselves outside the EU and simply don't care won't bother.
That being said, many European countries tend to have their own little foibles. Germany has a hard on aga
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The world is a complicated place.
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No it doesn't: Physical ID cards could have an NFC, which is read by the phone upon request.
Or the ID card data could be stored in the secure element of the phone (hoping it will be in the Digital Wallet). For children the only allowed query could be "over/under 18", mandated by the wallet itself.
The technologies exist, this really is simply a matter of will.
Also these databases already exist, in the EU everyone has an ID card.
About protections: the difference here is that you do not have to prove harm,even
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No it doesn't: Physical ID cards could have an NFC, which is read by the phone upon request.
Or the ID card data could be stored in the secure element of the phone (hoping it will be in the Digital Wallet). For children the only allowed query could be "over/under 18", mandated by the wallet itself.
The technologies exist, this really is simply a matter of will.
Also these databases already exist, in the EU everyone has an ID card.
About protections: the difference here is that you do not have to prove harm,even potential, to successfully sue for privacy protection.
This is Slashdot, where many technologists insist that technical problems can not be solved with technology, even if the technology already exists.
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And beyond that it's also trivial to connect data points from other databases in order to unmask someone once you have that data. Which gets us right back to the problem of gay people being outed when they're not safe.
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You may fake the NFC chip, but the security comes from the digital signature saved on it.
THIS!!! (Score:2)
My ID card have a chip that can be read using a card reader. Maybe newer versions will have nfc.
the data is encrypted with several keys, you are only allowed to read using the approved software and only get the keys for what you are allowed to read. (no background read of everything both the software denies and even if you hack it, it is still encrypted)
I also have my ID card in the phone as a virtual card using the national ID app
Any site can install the card software and request the data, the user will re
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While at it, I would also append county of citizenship to that token, to see if a
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Now you understand what Identity Security and zero trust architecture REALLY is all about.
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If done correctly there doesn't need to be any personally identifiable information provided to the website.
If a person attempts to access an age verified website, a popup window could open a tunnel to the verification system. When the user provides the correct information and is verified, the original website receives a "User passed age check" token. That token would not identify the user individually but would authorize the content for that user for that session. The age check system doesn't even need t
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a tunnel to the verification system.
You assume said system is super secure and not in any way being used to track anyone.
Oh, you sweet, summer, child.
*Any* action taken to surface your idenitity, regardless of ridiculous claimed intent, is going to be abused/exposed eventually. Every. Damned. Time.
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Data privacy in the EU takes a fundamentally different approach to that in the USA. The focus is not on the collecting of the data but what you can do with it. Laws are such that in many cases even inter-government departments can't shared data among them, but there's nothing stopping the collection of the data. Also the data collected needs to typically have a specific purpose related to the reason it is being collected.
In America the focus seems to be on trying to block collection in the first place rathe
None of these people are so stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
It always amazes me that the same crowd of parents who will scream at the top of their lungs if the government tells them to vaccinate their kids or hell have their kids use mouthwash will on a dime demand that the government seize control of all telecommunications to prevent Junior from looking at a pair of tits.
Puritanicalism sucks.
Re:None of these people are so stupid (Score:5, Funny)
That they think for a second that this will have any effect on children's access to pornography.
It may be ineffectual. But I think we can all agree that exposing children to porn gives them unrealistic ideas of how fast a plumber will come to your house.
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It will however allow them to track what their entire population does on the internet.
Exactly! And like in Canada with debanking protesters against 2 years of COVID lockdowns, because it is tied to government ID they will be able to prevent individuals from age verifying themselves, likely effectively blocking them from using any social media.
Re:None of these people are so stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
Puritanicalism sucks.
I totally accept the desire to feather child experience into adult experience. Personally I think violence and anti-social behavior and making a fetish of celebrity worship is far more harmful than nudity and related activities but that's just my opinion.
What really gets me is that this harms adults. Showing your ID at a beer store doesn't. Showing your ID at a dildo store doesn't. Showing your ID to get into a bar doesn't. Showing your ID to an officer when you're driving doesn't.
What's the point in protecting children if you're just going to screw them over as adults? Children are the future, but if you've accepted the future sucks, you're just dooming children to that. Violating privacy to do legal things isn't okay to do to adults. Not for the nebulous, unproven "protect the children" benefits claimed. We are animals. We are just a few generations distant from cave-dwelling club-them-over-the-head-and-take-their-stuff barbarism. I can't imagine our species' adults hiding their sexual activity 50,000 years ago. Or our violence. I'm not advocating abuse. I'm just saying... there's no real reason to inflict known harms on adults to not prevent made-up harms from children. Most exposure to bad things is going to happen in real life, not Google.
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What really gets me is that this harms adults. Showing your ID at a beer store doesn't. Showing your ID at a dildo store doesn't. Showing your ID to get into a bar doesn't. Showing your ID to an officer when you're driving doesn't.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. A lot of these places have cameras and many officers even have body cams. It's just a tiny step to archive everything, plugin OCR, facial recognition and save everything in a database.
Some stores will even forbid you access to the store because their facial recognition cameras have identified you as a thief according to the databases they use.
Re: None of these people are so stupid (Score:2)
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Based on the parents I talk to, it's just pure techno-illiteracy. They think that there must be some way to regulate the internet in the same way that the TV and print media is regulated. Trying to explain to them why this doesn't work is impossible. When these bans don't work, they will just criminalise things like 'allowing your child to access adult content' and leave it to parents to figure out how to deal with a problem they can't fix.
Here in the UK there is also this absurd victim culture. I don't wat
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Less about porn and more about social media and shopping.
While it is possible to bypass age verification on social media, by its social nature that makes it less usable. It's also harder to get away with, because many of the things people do on social media reveal their location. These companies' business models are knowing where you are so they can send you targeted ads.
UK is in the game, too. (Score:2)
Our rules are set to be enforced from 25 July.
No problem with age verification but... (Score:5, Interesting)
I do not agree with the responsibility for verification to be deferred to external, private companies.
Sending your photo IDs and/or face scans to private companies is an absolutely dumbfuck idea.
Any identity verification system should be run by the government.
Re: No problem with age verification but... (Score:2)
Quite the opposite. They already have our data and they don't need to profit from it like private companies do.
IMHO, those concerned about the government tracking them need to realise that the government doesn't really give a crap what sort of porn you're into.
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We're talking about the EU here, not the USA. Huge difference.
Re: No problem with age verification but... (Score:2)
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a system well designed will only be able to check the age field of your ID card, nothing else
the current system we already have in Portugal to authenticate in government sites lists what is trying to read and you can approve or not. it list what fields are requests, so you confirm if they are asking the age or something else. Expand this system to be standard and you have a clean and safe way to confirm the age
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not all government are corrupt/useless like USA, cental America, middle-east and most African countries
There are for sure no perfect governments, but many actually work well... but USA always think that any government that takes care of their own is communist, that is why they don't get it
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Any identity verification system should be run by the government.
No private corporation has ever sent men with guns to my house in the middle of the night to pound on my door.
My government has.
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Maybe not your door. [polygon.com]
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check the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Those were started by big private corporations fighting legit governments in central America
Just because you never feel it, doesn't mean that it didn't happen and for sure will happen again in the future
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Maybe not to your house. But private corporations definitely have done what you have said, many times throughout history. Hell private corporations have had entire armies, conquered entire geographic regions, committed genocide, etc interpedently, and more recently work with governments to do sanctioned activities that make you fear your government.
Why do you think the US government asks for your Facebook username at the border?
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Re: No problem with age verification but... (Score:2)
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Good thing then, that this is run by government, and that no sensitive information is shared with any private company.
The point of the "app" is that a website can send a signed verification request "is this person over 18", and the app will, if the user approves the request, give a signed response of "yes" or "no".
The website never sees the actual age of the user, nor any identifying information.
And a while later ... (Score:2)
... the app becomes mandatory for everybody and will also block unwanted political speech and any statement the government does not like.
This has zero chance to make it past the EU court of justice.
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how? Any system will list what is being request and will not have access to other data.
i can ask the age, now what? only older than 50 can see the site?
if you have a site that have anti-gov site, maybe you don't install and require the app?
if it ask name, you can say no, just like now you can login with google, facebook, etc... but say no and login with email or phone and not connect to the other sites.
the web admins will choose what to ask and the users accept or not what to share.
if you want to block a si
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how? Any system will list what is being request and will not have access to other data.
You believe that? Cool, the propaganda is working! Incidentally, they can just ask for age-verification for any site for "reasons".
Won't some one please think of the children?! (Score:2)
I don't want to have to make a second internet that is centrally managed, connected to schools, and a bit more regulated on its content and purpose.
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I know. I was on /. the first time the article came around.
It will work about as well as it did in the past (Score:2)
Kids will still have access just like in the past and it won't be the tame stuff they are looking at now.
I've lost hope for the human race, we don't care to even see what is going on around us.
If parents can't protect kids then I can assure you the law and the government certainly will not no matter what law they pass.
Effective? (Score:2)
Before the internet there was Playboy. While store weren't supposed to sell them to minors, how many do you think had a copy hidden under their bed?
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it is very effective on accidental arriving to those sites.
not effective if a minor really want to see it, either steal their parents IDs, or ask a older brother or simply search for unblocked sites.
porn will ever exist and minors will always be able to find a way, but at least they will be older and smarter, not age of 7 trying to understand what site is that one that they eared in school
Social apps, chats and games are right now a mess for young people. parents should not give a phone to a kid, nor allow
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"blocking adults from entering kids games and social apps"
How is this done exactly? Do kids need an ID to show the app to prove they are minors? Where do they get those IDs? Are places now requiring children to have photo IDs other than passports?
Linux (Score:2)
I can believe I didn't see this already asked: does this app works on Linux? Will it?