From the article: Kids Web Services is a subsidiary of Epic Games. The FAQ seems to indicate that it’s free to developers? They outsource credit card checking to Stripe, identity document checking...
From the article:
After blocking its service in Mississippi over its new age assurance law, the social networking startup is taking a different approach to comply with laws in South Dakota and Wyoming. Instead of requiring Bluesky to restrict access to all unverified users, users in South Dakota and Wyoming can verify their ages through the Kids Web Services’ (KWS) solution.
The service allows users to choose from multiple methods to verify their ages, which may include payment cards, an identity document, an anonymous face scan for facial age estimation, or other alternatives. Bluesky is using the same service to comply with the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, which has similar requirements.
Kids Web Services is a subsidiary of Epic Games. The FAQ seems to indicate that it’s free to developers? They outsource credit card checking to Stripe, identity document checking to Veriff, and video age estimation to Yoti.
I’m pretty ok with Stripe, but this outsourcing of various aspects of age verification to companies I hadn’t previously heard of, which in turn outsource to others, doesn’t fill me with confidence. It seems like with a lot of partners involved, there’s more to go wrong?
This part sounds good in theory: But I'm not sure I want to trust Epic Games with this. (More so I don't want to trust Tencent.) And I also don't understand how a payment card number is sufficient...
This part sounds good in theory:
KWS never stores the personal information used to verify adult status (e.g. payment card number, ID document, face scan, etc.). KWS only retains a user’s hashed email and certain metadata, such as timestamp and method used, to re-use their verified status across services (learn more about the ‘verified status’ information here). Users have the option to delete their record stored in the AgeGraph at any time.
But I'm not sure I want to trust Epic Games with this. (More so I don't want to trust Tencent.)
And I also don't understand how a payment card number is sufficient age verification. Obviously all of these methods have potential to be spoofed, but haven't kids been using parents' credit cards for ages now?
Yeah, I recall using a prepaid card (those Visa, etc gift cards you can buy in physical stores) in some cases. I think a lot of verification systems now will reject using those in some cases, such...
Us well-behaved kiddos were using paysafecards instead
Yeah, I recall using a prepaid card (those Visa, etc gift cards you can buy in physical stores) in some cases. I think a lot of verification systems now will reject using those in some cases, such as a subscription service.
The potential privacy implications are foremost, but I’m also dubious of visual age estimation. There are a lot of people out there that consistently get pegged as 10+ years younger than they...
The potential privacy implications are foremost, but I’m also dubious of visual age estimation. There are a lot of people out there that consistently get pegged as 10+ years younger than they actually are by other people… if humans, a social species which has evolved to be extremely sensitive to each other’s faces with a huge chunk of neural capacity dedicated to that set of functions, can’t accurately estimate others’ ages even with the benefit of the 3rd dimension and in-person cues, what hope does a comparatively crude machine looking at an extremely lossy 2D image have?
I think this is why they support a variety of methods. None of these work in every case. Presumably the number of adults who look young AND don’t have a credit card AND can’t or don’t want to...
I think this is why they support a variety of methods. None of these work in every case.
Presumably the number of adults who look young AND don’t have a credit card AND can’t or don’t want to upload a supported identity document is small enough that these companies are comfortable not providing service to them until they’re older.
Meanwhile, some people who are affected, if they care enough, will find their own workarounds, like asking a friend to create an account for them, or using a VPN.
I'm going to assume that data brokers are either already harvesting enormous amounts of information from these "age checks" or will be soon. Tying someone's identity to their web fingerprint will...
I'm going to assume that data brokers are either already harvesting enormous amounts of information from these "age checks" or will be soon. Tying someone's identity to their web fingerprint will be financially lucrative.
It's likely that age verification infrastructure will be a new battleground where different interests compete, in the sense described by Michael Nielsen in this twitter thread. I don't know who to...
It's likely that age verification infrastructure will be a new battleground where different interests compete, in the sense described by Michael Nielsen in this twitter thread.
I don't know who to root for with respect to privacy. Perhaps Apple will be a better ally than these other firms, but they don't seem to have a widely deployed solution yet.
From the article:
Kids Web Services is a subsidiary of Epic Games. The FAQ seems to indicate that it’s free to developers? They outsource credit card checking to Stripe, identity document checking to Veriff, and video age estimation to Yoti.
I’m pretty ok with Stripe, but this outsourcing of various aspects of age verification to companies I hadn’t previously heard of, which in turn outsource to others, doesn’t fill me with confidence. It seems like with a lot of partners involved, there’s more to go wrong?
Here is an article where Yoti explains that age estimation is not facial recognition.
This part sounds good in theory:
But I'm not sure I want to trust Epic Games with this. (More so I don't want to trust Tencent.)
And I also don't understand how a payment card number is sufficient age verification. Obviously all of these methods have potential to be spoofed, but haven't kids been using parents' credit cards for ages now?
Yeah, I recall using a prepaid card (those Visa, etc gift cards you can buy in physical stores) in some cases. I think a lot of verification systems now will reject using those in some cases, such as a subscription service.
Sometimes, but it depends how cautious the parents are and how daring the kids are. It’s a speed bump.
The potential privacy implications are foremost, but I’m also dubious of visual age estimation. There are a lot of people out there that consistently get pegged as 10+ years younger than they actually are by other people… if humans, a social species which has evolved to be extremely sensitive to each other’s faces with a huge chunk of neural capacity dedicated to that set of functions, can’t accurately estimate others’ ages even with the benefit of the 3rd dimension and in-person cues, what hope does a comparatively crude machine looking at an extremely lossy 2D image have?
I think this is why they support a variety of methods. None of these work in every case.
Presumably the number of adults who look young AND don’t have a credit card AND can’t or don’t want to upload a supported identity document is small enough that these companies are comfortable not providing service to them until they’re older.
Meanwhile, some people who are affected, if they care enough, will find their own workarounds, like asking a friend to create an account for them, or using a VPN.
I'm going to assume that data brokers are either already harvesting enormous amounts of information from these "age checks" or will be soon. Tying someone's identity to their web fingerprint will be financially lucrative.
It's likely that age verification infrastructure will be a new battleground where different interests compete, in the sense described by Michael Nielsen in this twitter thread.
I don't know who to root for with respect to privacy. Perhaps Apple will be a better ally than these other firms, but they don't seem to have a widely deployed solution yet.