PC Master Race

And this is actually how I’ve said it should be done from the start, though those ages are too granular for my taste. Just allow the user to verify their age once, then it shares a broad (child/teen/adult) age range with whatever asks.

We even have the technology to securely verify a person’s age without sharing any details, the same way we can share a password without actually storing it directly. It would require governments to actually pull their heads out of their asses and be technologically literate, but it could 100% be done:

Step 1, the government sets up a public database query. This simply returns a “true/false” response for if a hash matches their database of people over 18. Have people set up a password or PIN directly with the government (probably when they’re applying for an ID, which they would need to verify their age anyways), to act as a salt for their personal info hash.

Step 2, the user who wants to verify their age enters their data and password on their device. This info never leaves their device. It is hashed, and sent to whatever service their device is trying to verify. Google account, iCloud account, Microsoft account, etc… It can even be a local user account for things like Windows or Linux machines that don’t want to use cloud accounts. The important part is that the info is never directly sent, only the salted hash is. And simply using the info on a stolen ID won’t help, because you don’t have the password so the hash will be wrong.

Step 3, this hash can then be used to query that database, to see if the user is over 18. Again, the government simply returns a basic true/false on whether the info matches something in their database. It doesn’t give any specific info about the person. The service (whatever it may be) never gets your personal info, because they only saw the salted hash. And the government doesn’t need to know what specific device or person is trying to verify, because they only saw Microsoft/Google/Apple/etc asking “hey, does {hash} match your hash database?”

Step 4, once the query returns as true, the account is now flagged as age verified. This flag can be set directly on the account, so any device the user logs into can automatically be verified without needing to repeat the process.

On the user’s end, they get a much smoother experience. They never need to deal with the “are you over 18” pages on porn sites. And they don’t need to verify each individual site. The site simply asks if the user is over 18 as part of the initial https handshake before the webpage even loads. And then it boots the user (or more realistically, redirects them to a SFW “your device isn’t age verified, here is how to do that” page) if the user isn’t verified. And once a user is verified, it can be logged directly on their account so that they don’t need to verify each individual device. Your iCloud/Google/Microsoft/etc accounts could simply have the age flag added to your account, so any device you log into is automatically verified.

And importantly, parents protecting their kids is as simple as refusing to age-verify their kid’s accounts. By default, everything assumes you are a child until proven otherwise. Protect your password (which you should already be doing anyways) and your kid can’t sneak into your purse to use your ID to secretly verify themselves. Hell, you can even allow verified users to create specific child/teen accounts for their kids, which can be trusted without needing to re-verify anything. Because (again) that is simply a tool for parents to use if they feel like they should. By default, everything is assuming you’re a child anyways.

But of course, this is all a pipe dream. It will never actually be implemented in a sane way, because the tech companies are the ones pushing for age verification. They want to be the ones to handle your data, which means they’ll actively rebel against anything that takes that away from them. They’d lobby governments to prevent the hash database system from being implemented, because it would prevent them from being able to collect your data directly.