52
How could/would/should the Fediverse do age verification if required in the EU? (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
63 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The question is prompted by the age verification app that the EU has just presented.

Some EU countries want to ban social media for young people. If that were to happen, what then?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 5 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Centralized platforms, including the big federated ones, might be required to institute this. We'll have to wait and see. Usually laws define the words they use. So they'll have to define "social media" and "age verification" and what does and does not apply. After it's out, then it's up to the courts.

I've been watching the Section 230 discussions in the US, and they don't want to wipe away what's there because they want to protect smaller platforms, but they are looking to amend it to add additional wording for size, revenue, etc.

Also, there's NOTHING stopping you from running your own service and hopping on. Honestly this is why I want to see self hosted plug and play devices for the Fediverse. You don't need age verification if you run it for your family and know everyone's age.

These age verification laws will work on some folks, but I think the vast majority of folks will just be pushed to the outskirts. And honestly, we're it. This could be a boon for the Fediverse.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] [S] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    You don’t need age verification if you run it for your family and know everyone’s age.

    You could run your own family forum just fine. The problems start when you want to federate. Let me be crass to make the point. Say someone posts child porn and that gets federated to your instance. You think you can just declare that someone else's problem to avoid legal complications?

    The way I expect this would work, is that instances would become responsible for who they federate with. If an instance allows your family instance to federate, they would allow your users to indirectly use their instance. We'll have to wait what lawmakers or courts do, as you say. But I think, federation would only be by manual approval after some sort of check for compliance, or maybe even a legal contract similar to how it goes in GDPR. Actually, such GDPR contracts might be required anyway, but who cares.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Age verification aside, the likelihood is that eventually the Threadiverse, if it grows, will change as to require manual approval of new instances anyway just on a pure spam issue and abuse level.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] [S] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Maybe, but letting a new instance federate doesn't create a bigger abuse risk than allowing account creation. Going through a compliance checklist takes more effort.

    It might split the Fediverse in compliant and non-compliant, where compliant servers don't talk to the others.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •