Baral'heia Stormdancer ÎÎđ˛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)
âšī¸ 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.