alt Hacker NewsWhy do we need to verify age?
You can't tell me that these social media companies don't already know exactly how old someone is just based on the enormous data that is collected.
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They do already like YouTube and ChatGPT, so they'll ask for your age only when they're unsure.
Because it's all about bringing in digital ID and gated internet. Not age.
They would prefer to know, not estimate, which is why they are pushing these initiatives basically on their own accord.
Also, if you've ever played with this kind of data, there is immense overlap between how some adults and some kids use the internet. Is this user legally a child, or just emotionally a child? Similar to the problem of "There is overlap between the smartest bears and dumbest tourists" in designing bear proof garbage cans.
If you want to use a service that is age restricted either by law or the company providing it how else would you do it? It's the same IRL. I don't like it as well and we certainly lived through the wild wild west times in the 90s and 00s but the more something gets economical important the more scrutiny it gets. Maybe we just need something new.
A big concern around age verification is that some people will be locked out because they can't prove their age.
Your solution here has the same flaw, I think. If the algorithm thinks I'm underage, I'm locked out.