Mastodawn

An interesting letter from Ofcom, about the UK's proposed social media ban for children / age verification of everyone.

The letter stops quite a way short of saying that the plan is feasible.

The most that Ofcom says is that it "*should* be technically feasible" - not "is" or "will be", but merely "should".

It then goes on to explain various technical challenges.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/about-ofcom/public-correspondence/2026/letter-from-oliver-griffiths-to-ollie-ilott_16june26.pdf?v=419590

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climbertobby

@neil

"The evidence does not yet show that these [age inference] models can deliver an effective, privacy-preserving solution for an under 16 ban."

The "yet" is an absolute joke. I'd say the evidence is quite clear that the models are super inaccurate and if provided by 3rd parties don't preserve privacy at all, including leaks that already occurred.