In the technology section, "Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web" (2021), The New York Times’ David McCabe exposes the pressure from activists and parents' desire to protect children from inappropriate content on the internet. In action, a lot of governments already require age checks for sensitive content, such as in Japan, where users need to verify their age to use the app Tinder, and in the same way, in Germany and France, users need to verify their age to enter pornography websites. In response, many companies and authorities are taking action on this matter by registering a new law on age checks to protect children. Leading online platforms are taking action on this issue, with YouTube requiring identification documents or credit cards for entry to watch adult videos, while Google and Facebook were looking for and developing new methods of age verification to prevent users from lying about their age. In the opposite way, Twitter doesn’t require aggressive identity verification for adult content. Users are allowed to click through to 18+ content without any document. The new rule of age-checking requires users to give personal information to websites, which might lead to concerns about privacy and hacking. Daly Barnett, staff technologist, states that users’ information given to websites is "a treasure trove of data that’s exploitable." Responding to a concerning privacy issue, many companies and governments have introduced new measures to protect the privacy of users by limiting the period of storage of data. Another worry about aggressive age checking is that anonymous users are no longer anonymous anymore. Requiring a lot of documents and evidence for verification brings more uncomfort and frustration to users. Some new technologies could help with this issue. Mr. Farid, along with regulators and companies, suggests that "We don’t want the solution to be more harmful than the problem." Automatic facial analysis is one possible solution for comfortable age checking, but there are a few bugs with female or darker skin. Anyway, the new trend of age-checking might be beneficial for Roblox, the game company, in order to ban inappropriate players, who cannot reenter with the same government document, which the possible method they suggest is video chat and ID card. From the customer point of view, some don't want to disclose their personal information for service that they might pay for, or the age-checking policy might suit only adult 18+ content.
Reference
McCabe, D. (2021, Oct 27) Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/technology/internet-age-check-proof.html
First of all, when I was browsing through the New York Times, this article "Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web "got my attention." I was the one who preferred not giving any personal information to any website. So, this change of concern about protecting children from inappropriate content might no longer make users anonymous. Even the Thai government didn’t take responsibility for this matter, at least not for so long. It will require more identification for adult content or movies that have violent, sexual , or horror content. I can imagine how difficult our lives are going to be, when I just want to watch a slasher movie.
ReplyDeleteActually, I didn’t advocate for this regulation. I obviously understand that the internet probably harms minors by influencing kids' desire to emulate aggressive behavior. However, in my opinion, I agree that "Internet was created by adults, for adults," but I think parents should be responsible for preventing their children from being harmed by the internet. There is a kid's feature containing all the content for children, which is fair enough to protect children.
For freemium services, such as YouTube premium, members have to pay for the service per month. I am also one of the members, and I will be very frustrated by giving out my personal information. This is a controversial issue that online platforms have to find a solution to avoid members' unpleasant experiences.
Personally, I believe that if parents pay attention to their children and guide them on what they should and should not do, the age-checking measure is unnecessary.That is enough to keep the child on track.
Hi Phum, thank you for summarizing the news article for us. It is interesting. I agree with the idea that "Internet was created by adults, for adults." As I have two nieces whose ages are around 8 to 9 years old, I noticed that they don't need the Internet. When they use the Internet, they use it for attending their online classes and watch some cartoons from streaming service providers such as Disney Plus, and I have to help them with that. They don't know how to use the search engines on the Internet and they cannot type many words to search what they want on the Internet, so I have to help them. By doing so, I can control them when using the Internet. I think the most dangerous thing about using the Internet for kids is the search engines.
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