Just give your most sensitive ID papers to a dodgy data broker...

Papers, please!

Literally anything apart from regulating the algorithm

As time passes Ofcom proves to be an even bigger fool. It is nothing more than an authoritarian scoped agency feeding on several layers of discrimination.

Yeah, of course we need device layer verification; yeah, of course teenagers are equivalent to 7-10yo or children - this is just delusional.

It has also acknowledged that "the risk of circumvention cannot be entirely eliminated", and some children would succeed in bypassing the age checks.

Yeah.

How does this protect us from Boomers voting based on what they read if Facebook? Or Karens on mumsnet, or divorced dads and incels on X?

I worry about that much more than teens seeing porn or LGBTQ+ info.

Edit: To be clear, I don't worry about it all. If anything, I worry about them not getting info.

You're putting your trust in the WEAKEST part of the chain here, on the companies to use this data in a trustworthy manner.

You can't even put this down to naivety, it's just pure recklessness and destruction of privacy rights.

Will you close down whole social media sites if they break the rules? No you won't. What's your answer if these companies, who function outside of the UK, steal all the information, sell it to data brokers or leak it?

It will be absolutely fucking nothing because it falls outside of UK borders.

This is the LEAST responsible action possible. Out of all outcomes, this will lead to the worst ending.

I mean they could, but if they do I won't be using their site. 4chan is still running though.

The BBC has asked three of the UK's biggest banks whether they would have a process for assisting with social media requests for age verification if it did become an official measure.

What a fucking dumbass comment here by the BBC. Using card transactions for age verification was literally written into the law!! The law only vaguely defined facial recognition and ID scanning, because the technology didn't really exist yet, but explicitly mentions card transactions.

Hell, I'm convinced that was the main reason behind the law. MasterCard and VISA want more businesses to authenticate transactions, at a time when they're increasingly choosing not to to save money on their fee.