Baral'heia Stormdancer ΘΔ🐲Aww goddamnit!! Since the @furality mirror stopped working here on Fedi, I missed the post last month that @furality.org is going to require age verification through #VRChat to attend #FuralityUltra. And since VRC uses Persona (yeah, *THAT* Persona, the one that got breached!)... [1/2]
@furality @furality.org This is the vendor you have to trust with your ID now if you want to attend #Furality:
https://cybernews.com/privacy/persona-leak-exposes-global-surveillance-capabilities/
Great idea y'all.
@furality (Thread with the announcement, a link to #Furality's full statement, and all of the overwhelmingly negative responses can be found on bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/furality.org/post/3mdtdg75tcy2t )
Furality (@furality.org)
ℹ️ Starting with Furality Ultra, our conventions will require attendees to be 18+ and age-verified in VRChat. VRChat Age Verification will be provided for FREE with your Access Pass, and our content policies remain unchanged. Please read our full statement and FAQ in the reply.
Suda synth mode 
@baralheia Oh good, another article to add to my big thread on this
Suda synth mode :neobot: :asexual_flag: :demisexual_flag: (@[email protected])
So Furality announced yesterday in their Discord group (note it was one day after their big Furality Connections livestream that did give details about the upcoming Furality Ultra this year) that they will be requiring age verification and that the con will be 18+ only. (That doesn't inherently mean it will be an NSFW convention) They don't state in the announcement directly, but the age verification is being done by Persona, which is an AI-based identity verification service that works with many big companies, notably OpenAI, which they proudly display on their home page. https://withpersona.com/ Here's why I hate this. "AI-powered age verification" is already completely ridiculous. And it's already been a disaster for a game https://www.pcmag.com/news/robloxs-new-age-verification-system-is-reportedly-off-to-a-chaotic-start (article from two weeks ago) AI partnerships https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/persona-and-paravision-join-forces-to-deliver-enhanced-age-estimation-technology-301992094.html Expanding integration https://www.tipranks.com/news/private-companies/persona-joins-openage-network-to-expand-privacy-preserving-age-verification-capabilities Sensitive personal details at risk https://blog.rankiteo.com/per5080350102825-persona-third-party-age-verification-service-breach-october-2025/ Yes, VRChat already uses this for age verification, but that's also bad.
Aeáro, a SeaWyrm 
Resonite furry convention when!?
ramshackle 
@baralheia @aearo @furality and it looks like they're not allowing adult content anyway so why are furality even doing this? why are they so eager to doxx a subset of the fandom directly to palantir :/
@patches @aearo @furality As I understand it, they want Furality to be open to 18+ attendees only, and are using the age gating in VRC to enforce that. I kinda get it... especially with a virtual event, allowing minors can be a potentially risky proposition with a limited mod/admin team to keep an eye on things. But they're going about this in the worst possible way imo.
This fucking SUCKS because the experience I had last year at Furality Somna was incredible and legitimately life-changing. I *WANT* to go again this year quite badly, even if I'm kinda meh on the theme. But if I have to doxx myself to do it? Yeah nah.
CyHell the people really behind this age verification stuff would probably love to have the legal names and addresses of all the furries in the world.
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
Oh, yeah, Furality's for sure making a poor choice here. *nod*
Jae AKA J4
Shinisuryu/Atlas Apparatus@baralheia What in the actual fuck? How to destroy your event with one quick action.
@Shinisuryu I agree, but if I'm being honest tho... While I do think that attendance will drop this year, I also have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of furs just aren't gonna care about the privacy concerns - especially among the younger crowd who simply don't have the life experience yet to know why it's bad.
@baralheia Yeah, sadly that sounds about right. 