Mastodawn

Oh and by the way, these age verification things are pure bullshit. This is Go.cam - the leading "open source" one people are talking about. I thought I'd have to employ some AI image generation stuff to spoof it. That was... overly optimistic about their capabilities.

"Highly Effective Age Assurance" they said.

#OnlineSafetyAct

Honestly, fuck all the people pushing this.

Fuck the hand-wringing apologists who know better but employed a "it'll be alright on the night" attitude when we had a chance to stop it.

Fuck the snake-oil salesmen who are pushing "solutions" like this one.

Fuck Ofcom and their "what government wants, government gets" attitude - if you think it's a mistake, fight it, or resign instead of being complicit in ushering in censorship.

Fuck the idiots who think it'll stop here.

@ret they know none of it works.
They want a chilling effect on speech and they’re gonna get it any means necessary.

The Vampire Fish Queen 5d ago

@colinstu @ret That why we need to stop it and many arew waking up to that,

@TheVampireFishQueen @ret 100%%% (it never should've passed / existed in the first place)

The Vampire Fish Queen 5d ago

@colinstu @ret It may not be much but the petition doing really wel;

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

Petition: Repeal the Online Safety Act

We want the Government to repeal the Online Safety act.

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

ulveon.net 5d ago

@ret Hopefully you also name and shame the furry admins who run NSFW spaces demanding to see newcomers' IDs, yes?

Outrageously common on Telegram and Discord, and beyond disgusting.

@ulveon not really sure how to respond to that I'm afraid. I don't think I'm in the business of "naming and shaming" anybody.

Lehti Juoksija 5d ago

I don't quite understand what you think would be a better solution. Would you rather they not even attempt age verification and make it way more trivial for minors to access those spaces..? Or are you trying to advocate for something with even stronger authentication like https://ageverification.dev/ for example (relies on EU national ID systems auth instead)?

Like, sure, current solutions suck, but I've got nothing better to recommend.

European Age Verification Solution

ulveon.net 5d ago

@lehti @ret It's not a good thing, but minors will always find workarounds to view porn. Don't tell me you never seeked porn when you were underage, because I don't believe it at all. Even before the Internet existed, teenagers would trade magazines and porn films. Often pirated or stolen material.

And Doxing legal adult consumers of pornography doesn't make anyone safer. In fact, it makes these adults vulnerable to identity fraud.

And you know what sites will not comply with age verification requirements? Those hosting the most vile and putrid porn imaginable.

ulveon.net 5d ago

@lehti @ret what we really need is responsible parenting, sex ed, and understanding the causes of children accessing porn.

But that is too difficult, and banning porn for children is something everyone can agree on.

Even myself: I don't think children should access porn.

But this is not the way to do it.

@lehti @ulveon I would rather parents hold the responsibility over what their kids should and shouldn't see. When they see things they shouldn't see (which they will), it needs to be contextualised and educated-about.

@lehti @ulveon this sort of thing rots societies. It erodes privacy and trust. It infantilises and removes obligation from parents. It hides from the real issues. It indulges in puritanical views. I oppose it in all forms. I will fight it in all forms.

Baral'heia Stormdancer ΘΔ🐲5d ago

@ret @lehti @ulveon This, 100%.

Lehti Juoksija 5d ago

@baralheia
@ret @ulveon
Good for ya, I do hope ya manage to change the laws around the world to reflect ya views. As currently it very much ya issue if ya run an adult space and a minor finds their way there.

ulveon.net 4d ago

@lehti @baralheia @ret how many admins of NSFW Telegram and Discord groups have ever been sued by parents of children who lied about their age?

Yeah, exactly, zero.

Lehti Juoksija 4d ago

@ulveon
Am no legal expert so no point in arguing about law, just being genuine in thinking there is an issue and wishing it could be changed. Even if the laws weren't an issue, I don't see why a community should be forbidden from having their own rules include that. Don't get me wrong, I figure it's also good that they aren't required to have arbitrary rules either.

That way I can choose to join the communities where I feel safer, that I feel like reduce the risk for possible moral & legal issues. And past me or you can pick to instead interact in the more privacy preserving ones, where there is not a moral issue with mandated reduced privacy.

Noxy 🐾🏳️‍🌈5d ago

@lehti @ret @ulveon not asking people to upload images of their drivers licenses to Discord or Telegram would be better than all the places that currently happens. Tangible risks to privacy and security of adults is more important than the act of "thinking of the children".

polprog68k 4d ago

@ulveon @ret holy shit lol, how stupid are people who actually send these IDs? Making compromat has never been easier.

ulveon.net 4d ago

@gorplop@pleroma.m68k.church @ret THANK you.

We as a furry community should be actively fighting against these requirements. It is not OK to send your ID over the internet under any circumstances, much less to some random porn-addicted furry.

Once someone gets your ID, they could just keep it forever, and publish it whenever they like, and you cannot do anything about it because you most likely don't even have their real name.

Okay I just printed off the same two pictures and held them up to the camera and it worked flawlessly too.

This is a strange object to have, now.

Quite pleased with the printer performance though.

🪣💙I🌍5d ago

@ret this looks ai and cursed

@paleblueyedot surprisingly it isn't, it's a real stock image. https://unsplash.com/photos/man-wearing-henley-top-portrait-7YVZYZeITc8

Photo by Jurica Koletić on Unsplash

Eyes – Download this photo by Jurica Koletić on Unsplash

RawiWoof 5d ago

@ret
Back when I was just 18 I had someone guessing my age at around 35.
Now, considering that all this recognition software is basically mimicking human recognition behaviour, it explains why it's about as accurate.

@ret for extra credit, do the age verification with a photo from https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/

This Person Does Not Exist

This Person Does Not Exist

@pq1r quite doable, you need to be able to alter them to change facial expression though - that's basically it as far as I could tell.

@ret If you refresh the page a few times you will end up with an adult facing forward with a neutral expression.

@pq1r nah you need both - that's the thing. I think that's the "liveness test" lol.

@ret Oh. I see. I tried the following prompt on one of those AI engines but it's a bit too busy right now:

Please make a short video of an adult person, close up facing the camera, with a neutral expression starting to smile, smiling, and then stop smiling.

@pq1r yeah I wondered about that too. Honestly this stuff came along at the wrong time.

demisexual_flag

@ret but can you apply the markiplier method? (https://www.404media.co/kids-say-theyre-using-photos-of-trump-and-markiplier-to-bypass-gorllia-tag-age-verification/)

Kids Say They're Using Photos of Trump and Markiplier to Bypass 'Gorilla Tag' Age Verification

Popular VR game Gorilla Tag partnered with the company k-ID to comply with age verification laws.

404 Media

@ret I hope someone shows this to parliament to show how weak and easy age verification is to bypass. But also show this to the GoCam to show how "Highly Effective" it is to bypass.

KateYagi 5d ago

@ret Something rings strangely to me about it calling the process "selfie" and not "webcam."

@kateyagi yeah doesn’t give you confidence that it’s not saving photos of you!

RootWyrm 🇺🇦

@ret and the big one in use by big names like Reddit is a company called 'Persona.'
Their 'office' is a mail service in a very shady part of SF, their employees are questionable, their CEO is a big proponent of fascism and Orwellian surveillance, and they have direct links to Thiel and share data with Palantir *at the minimum*.

@ret Well played!

MarkAssPandi 4d ago

@ret tbh as long as it fulfills those bullshit age verification acts, idc about false positives

@MarkAssPandi see, I thought about not posting this for that reason. But I think we'd be living a lie then.

I don't want this to exist, but be bad enough that I (and other technically-minded folk) can trivially bypass it.

I want it to not exist because I think it's bad for the Internet and bad for society, freedom and humanity.

MarkAssPandi 4d ago

@ret yeah I agree on that

neofox_peek_owo

@ret the happy to neutral transition in obs is so funny.

@jessienab this was pushing the limits of my OBS abilities, tbh