Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK

https://www.theverge.com/news/704468/bluesky-age-verification-uk-online-safety-act

by donohoe • 1 year ago

22 22 1 year ago

theverge.com

chrisjj3• 1 year ago

the platform says it will let users verify their age by scanning their face

Seriously?

verdverm3• 1 year ago

From the first paragraph

the platform says it will let users verify their age by scanning their face, uploading an ID, or entering a payment card.

Note the "or"

chrisjj3• 1 year ago

I can't see why. It has no effect on the part in question.

gs17• 1 year ago

Multiple platforms have had that an an option. It's really odd as a concept to me, does it only work for very obvious cases and for people around 18-30 ask for an ID anyways?

brikym2• 1 year ago

Error: 403 - Account holder's testicles have not sufficiently descended.

goku122• 1 year ago

How do you determine that from a face scan?

cebert• 1 year ago

I am willing to give up all my civil liberties if it’s for the kids…

bradac56• 1 year ago

You do not have 'civil liberties' in the UK. There is no Miranda rights and there bill of rights is strictly based on the Magna Carta and is not as comprehensive and the US Bill of Rights which was based off of the UK version.

Per the wiki:

Civil liberties have been gradually declining in the United Kingdom since the late 20th century. Their removal has been generally justified by appeals to public safety and National Security and hastened on by crises such as the September 11 attacks, the 7/7 bombings and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.[4][5][6] The pandemic oversaw the introduction of the Coronavirus Act 2020, which was described by former Justice of the Supreme Court Lord Sumption as "the greatest invasion of personal liberty in [the UK's] history."

goku122• 1 year ago

The pandemic oversaw the introduction of the Coronavirus Act 2020, which was described by former Justice of the Supreme Court Lord Sumption as "the greatest invasion of personal liberty in [the UK's] history."

It's these sort of transgressions that make people hesitant or opposed to lifesaving interventions like mass vaccination campaigns and pandemic-time mask mandates. If you give an inch in the name of safety, you'll end up giving a mile permanently in terms of freedom.

omoikane• 1 year ago

Original blog post: https://bsky.social/about/blog/07-10-2025-age-assurance

I was looking for more details on who is considered in-scope, e.g. if the determination is decided at account creation time or at content access time. Especially considering how the AT protocol is a decentralized protocol that is not exclusive to a single region, it's not obvious how the enforcement will work.

pfraze• 1 year ago

Enforcement occurs at the application level. You can think of applications as analogous to search engines. They're aggregating view layers (which is why they're called AppViews). They are largely where moderation or regulatory requirements are enforced.

skybrian3• 1 year ago

What alternative AppViews are there? Anyone know?

fsflover• 1 year ago

Can't alternative applications avoid/fake this verification? Otherwise doesn't it imply no real decentralization?

skybrian3• 1 year ago

I poked around in the Bluesky repos [1] to figure out where the source code is for this feature, but didn't find it. Anyone know?

[1] https://github.com/bluesky-social

verdverm3• 1 year ago

Here is some of it: https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/pull/4030

skybrian3• 1 year ago

Thanks!

brikym2• 1 year ago

Of course it's in the UK. I'm surprised they don't have an internet licence yet but I'm sure it's coming.

r721• 1 year ago

Another discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44524571

Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK

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