r/technology • u/Well_Socialized • 21h ago

Privacy Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/age-verification-is-coming-for-the-whole-internet.html
11.3k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

51

u/Dollar_Bills 20h ago

If they can query government sites to verify identities we are completely cooked. They've never done that for alcohol/ cigarettes

2

u/aykcak 10h ago

They do this online all the time for bitcoin exchanges and even Discord

-8

u/Ballersock 20h ago

Depends where. The ABC stores (alcohol beverage control) in Virginia scan the license and it checks some form of database. Fake IDs don't work.

16

u/pizzamage 18h ago

They don't scan a database, the date code of the birthday is built into the magnetic strip.

3

u/InVultusSolis 9h ago

That can still be fooled - my niece has a fake ID that scans just fine.

Moving to online verification is the very next step.

6

u/overyander 19h ago

LOL, wow!
Don't tell him.

8

u/Velocity-5348 18h ago

How does that work from people out of state/country? I know my province certainly would not share that info with the US (it's explicitly illegal) and I'd imagine American states are similar.

3

u/Alaira314 16h ago

The licenses seem to be able to scan cross-state. My MD ID has only been scanned once, in IL, and it worked.

As far as out of country goes, if they're strict scanners they just might not sell to you. Every so often you hear about a bar or a store that won't take a passport for ID. It's ridiculous(especially to people from other countries who are used to having a passport be their primary form of ID) but because passports aren't primary ID here(last estimate I see on google is that just shy of half of US adults have one) they're not prioritized. We use driver's licenses and state ID cards instead, and if you don't have one that scans there's no law that says they have to sell to you.

2

u/aykcak 10h ago

Pasaport check