16% of Parents Help Their Children Bypass Online Age Checks, Study Finds. One 15-Year-Old Just Uses a Fake Moustache (independent.co.uk)
- Reference: 0183118540
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/05/04/0227227/16-of-parents-help-their-children-bypass-online-age-checks-study-finds-one-15-year-old-just-uses-a-fake-moustache
- Source link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/children-bypassing-age-verification-social-media-b2968803.html
> Parents also said they had caught their children drawing on facial hair in a bid to evade the technology. One mother said: "I did catch my son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a moustache on his face, and it verified him as 15 years old"... From a sample of 1,000 UK children, 46% said they believed age checks are easy to bypass, while 32% admitted to having done so.
49% of the children surveyed said they'd still encountered harmful content, according to the online safety activists. The group called the figure "unacceptable," and complained that age verification measures "are often ineffective in practice or easy to bypass."
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/children-bypassing-age-verification-social-media-b2968803.html
[2] https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/research/online-safety-act-report-2026/
Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
The age verification is to force those over the age threshold to be registered, and their social media etc submissions correlated to them.
If gov genuinely cared about kids, there are a lot of easy actions they could do before this.
Forest for the trees (Score:2)
I don't see why they can't just charge $1 per year, credit cards only.
Re:Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
Healthcare, daycare, education, school breakfast and lunch. Shall I continue?
Re:Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
I’m saying if the party of family values really wanted to do as they claim they wouldn’t be taking away things that actually help children.
Perfect example. [1]https://www.edweek.org/policy-... [edweek.org]
[1] https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/trump-admin-cuts-program-that-brought-local-food-to-school-cafeterias/2025/03
Re: Of course (Score:2)
hes correct that its for tracking though
Re: (Score:2)
>> If gov genuinely cared about kids, there are a lot of easy actions they could do before this.
> Such as?
They could issue all children Social Security Numbers at birth.
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>>> If gov genuinely cared about kids, there are a lot of easy actions they could do before this.
>> Such as?
> They could issue all children Social Security Numbers at birth.
How would a US social security number help a UK child bypass age verification checks?
Re: (Score:2)
>>>> If gov genuinely cared about kids, there are a lot of easy actions they could do before this.
>>> Such as?
>> They could issue all children Social Security Numbers at birth.
> How would a US social security number help a UK child bypass age verification checks?
If the solution were to actually work (phase 1 of Internet ID cards), then other governments would adopt it. Not shun it.
(Adopting the US social security system, merely means you recognize a value in a unique ID for every citizen. Don’t assume I’m suggesting others change their current system of senior pension.)
Re: Of course (Score:1)
Use the webcam to verify pubic hair?
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed completely. If a parent helps the kid register, there shouldn't be any problem here. Working as intended as far as I'm concerned.
Re: (Score:2)
> Agreed completely. If a parent helps the kid register, there shouldn't be any problem here. Working as intended as far as I'm concerned.
A case could even be made these are the most responsible parents. They know what their kids are doing and are paying attention (as opposed to their kids doing it behind their back, or the parents simply not caring). Good on them.
And as a bonus, the kids are learning at a young age that government is frequently an impediment to life that needs to be worked around. That lesson will serve them well for life.
Re: (Score:2)
This whole faffing around with scanned photos etc. will never work well and is a privacy/identity theft disaster in the making. The EU age verification app is better, since it doesn't transfer private information to the online service, other than the minimal "yes, I am at of least the required age". Pass tokens are not reused which prevents tracking and unused passes are renewed automatically every three months.
But to use it, you need to have set it up with a passport, electronic ID, bank account codes etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. Telcos have offered for ages SIM with plans with a safe site firewall option, that are blocking the traffic to harmful sites. Add on a smartphone a local firewall controlled by the telco and the kid can't bypass it. The same service could be requested for DSL or fiber modems.
So maybe having a more advertised option about these things and then the stick of a fine to the parents if the kid is using a SIM not for kids it's going to cover most of the cases.
Of course nothing could stop a horny teen
Re: (Score:2)
> Telcos have offered for ages SIM with plans with a safe site firewall option
Wider deployment of TLS over the past 12 years, wider use of too-big-to-fail CDNs for DDoS mitigation (such as Cloudflare), and DNS over HTTPS have made firewalls operated by the ISP less effective by hiding from the ISP what websites are being visited.
Re: (Score:2)
This.
Whenever a politician claims that something is "to protect the children", you can be 100%, absolutely certain that it is not about the children.
age is not maturity (Score:5, Funny)
Instead of assessing age, they should measure intellectual maturity. Only people who are sensible enough to shun social media should be allowed to join it.
Re: (Score:1)
> Instead of assessing age, they should measure intellectual maturity. Only people who are sensible enough to shun social media should be allowed to join it.
Define social media. Because I’m really starting to believe people have no fucking idea how to define that anymore. Maybe we should stop pretending the very things being secured by age verification, are somehow not social enough to qualify. Because we’re now forced to mitigate many a social problem that unsurprisingly also manifest in social media.
On a related note, I agree. Age is not maturity. All the more reason the voting age in America should be raised after grown-ass children elected
Re: (Score:2)
This is hilarious. We have the most heavy handed DEI administration in history. You name a cabinet member and I’ll tell you how they’re terribly disqualified for the job and were only hired on the basis of being a stooge. Is that not your definition of DEI?
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. But that would exclude a lot of voters.
Hm. Come to think of it, maybe we should put the a similar limit on voters? Like when you do not understand basics things, you cannot vote?
Re: (Score:2)
A more effective measure would be to ban the people who do not understand basic things from running for office.
Re: (Score:2)
Hehe, our formerly ruzzkie hasbara bro, emigrant from Prigozhin's old troll factory in Lakhta, St. Peterburg is at it again. This time from Haifa or Ramat Gan, I guess.
Re: (Score:2)
> Only people who are sensible enough to shun social media should be allowed to join it.
Especially slashdot!
Software EULAs (Score:5, Interesting)
My son is trying to learn video game development, but you have to be 18 to download unreal engine, apparently, with no option to have a parent approve for you, d of course I helped him bypass it.
Re: (Score:1)
Why not use Godot? Free, no authoritarian age verification, and should meet the goal just fine: to learn video game development.
Re: (Score:2)
Why not just use Unreal Engine? I'd do the same thing as this parent.
Re: (Score:2)
> Why not just use Unreal Engine?
Unreal Engine is proprietary software with a free replacement that is adequate for beginners. That's why.
Re: (Score:2)
While that's a good suggestion, learning something well that's in the minority means he may have to learn a second thing well if he wants to move on professionally--that's double the effort. I've looked at both; they are different. As we all know, our tech fields are hard enough and ever-changing, as is.
Re: (Score:2)
FWIW it's not double the effort - game engines share similarities. Also, if Fortnite money dries up (and it is reducing), the "ever-changing" nature of our tech fields might hit UE as hard as it has been hitting Unity.
Re: Software EULAs (Score:2)
Because unreal engine is eons ahead of Godot
UE "eons ahead" of Godot in what way? (Score:2)
How is Unreal Engine noticeably superior to Godot in a way that noticeably affects a beginner learning video game development for the first time?
Re: UE "eons ahead" of Godot in what way? (Score:2)
Enjoyment is an important part of learning. If one took brings more joy than the other while learning, then that's an argument in favour of that tool.
Easy: arrest those parents! (Score:1)
Parents are, supposedly, not underage, so fully liable in front od the law.
Fines would not suffice.
Having them arrested is what will place the real burden.
Or, better, fine + arrest.
Re: (Score:1)
Wow, you're so ignorant it's unbelievable you thought you had something sensible to say about this...
Kids did nothing wrong.
Parents did nothing wrong.
They are not the ones breaking the law dummy.
Re: (Score:3)
I can only hope this was pure sarcasm, since anyone suggesting to arrest parents as a solution is going to be assumed to be feeding their own prison and orphanage investments.
Arrest records, job loss, credit score impact, bankruptcy, and potential child separation. All, for what again?
Re: (Score:2)
> All, for what again?
While what you replied to might well be sarcasm, don't believe for a second that criminalizing this behavior isn't part of the plan. Even if you accept that the number reported are not inflated, the mere fact that the questions are being asked suggests that somebody is trying to justify something.
Those kids have to learn that the computer is their friend, er, that the government knows best for all things for all people. Or else.
Utah will (Score:2)
Utah is the first state to criminalize VPN use. We are giving up all of our digital freedoms. You have to start asking what we're getting in return. Like really ask yourself what are the people who are giving these things up getting in return for giving up basically all of their civil rights.
Re: (Score:2)
> What did you get in return for giving up basically all of your genitals by getting them cut off?
Reduced mental workload in having to put on a show of meeting society's behavior expectations for one's assigned gender all the time.
They do not care (Score:3, Insightful)
It was never about age verification at all, so they do not care that the actual age checks fail.
The infrastructure, the global legal frameworks and policies are in place, that is all that mattered to them.
Re: (Score:1)
there are two groups behind this: the government security people who just want the infrastructure in place for future crackdowns, and the neo-puritans who actually want all "objectionable" content gone forever and the people behind it stoned to death.
but yeah, neither group is ever going to be upfront about their goals
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously. One step deeper into a surveillance state. They already have that police-state mostly in place.
Re: (Score:2)
Who is "them"?
What you're hypothesising is basically a cross party conspiracy that they've somehow in a bout of absolutely unprecedented competence managed to keep secret. I don't buy it.
Predictive policing and religious conservatism (Score:2)
> Who is "them"?
Anonymous Coward [1]mentioned two categories of "them" [slashdot.org]. In case you don't see AC comments, I'll rephrase:
1. Government agencies interested in performing the same sort of predictive policing that led to [2]Terrorism Information Awareness [wikipedia.org] of the early 2000s.
2. The sort of religious conservatives who ultimately want sex and violence purged from even media intended for grown-ups, as we saw with [3]Collective Shout pressuring payment processors to pressure itch.io to remove erotic works [slashdot.org].
[1] https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23982146&cid=66126906
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Information_Awareness
[3] https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/08/03/0537212/itchio-starts-returning-the-free-games-it-removed-from-its-store
It's just theater (Score:2)
Its goal is not to do something effective to solve the problem addressed, but to pretend to do something to solve that problem. Pretty much like airport security. If they were to do something really effective to address the problems, in the case that occupies us here accessing many sites would become so difficult and inconvenient that most people would just stop doing so, with the concomitant revenue loss for those sites. In the airport security case passenger throughput would grind down to a treacle, which
Good start (Score:2)
Even if this crazy minimum-age shit weren't happening, it's generally a good idea to give incorrect information. Have one birthday for site x and a different birthday for site y. Use one of your parent's birthdays here, and a celebrity's birthday there. Pollute the public data and cause confusion.
If minimum age laws help to encourage data public data pollution (all of which arguably shouldn't be public at all anyway), then at least one good thing will have come out of it.
Let's get it up to 84% of parents h
Re: (Score:2)
I like using jan 1st as my birthday because it's usually easiest to enter on a pull down. Then I pick a year that puts me in a demographic where the ads aren't too annoying (in case they slip through my ad blocker).
Can't help but wonder ... (Score:3)
If the parent is fine with the kid accessing these materials, is this actually a problem?
Re: (Score:2)
Are you implying that parents are more qualified to determine what's best for their children than the government? Keep talking like that, and you'll end up in a reeducation camp.
Re: (Score:2)
> Are you implying that parents are more qualified to determine what's best for their children than the government? Keep talking like that, and you'll end up in a reeducation camp.
I'd say the government is far more capable of determining what's in the best interest of their children than the parents, but in its current state they don't leverage that capability or even have a desire to do so.
The chances that a parent has the same access to child psychologists, researchers, teacher's associations, and any other groups necessary to determine the child's best interests is laughable. The chances that a parent will base their decisions more from their own biases and ignorance than on caref
Re: (Score:2)
> government
> capable
Sorry I stopped reading after that
Re: (Score:2)
Because there are two groups of parents. Those that raise their kids well and are involved in their lives. The other group uses the screen as a baby sitter and don't really truly care what their kids are up to as long as they the parent can get their screen time with out being disturbed.
Unfortunately one of these two groups are becoming a larger group than the other.
I would do it (Score:2)
just as a middle finger to whoever put it in
And another 50% won't admit they did it (Score:2)
You know how many parents will jump through hoops just to get their kids to stop badgering them about what they want? Yeah, I don't believe the 16% number.
Won't somebody please think of the children? (Score:2)
Think of how much data they represent to our marketing partners!
I should point out (Score:2)
Humans can't tell how old humans are an enormous percentage of the time. Also, males can vary greatly in facial hair and skull shape by genetic and race specifically, commonly until age 21.
Re: (Score:2)
What are you talking about? The current age restriction systems in place for alcohol and tobacco--whereby an apathetic cashier checks a tiny, outdated photo of you--works perfectly. It's 100% effective at being an age restriction system. What are you suggesting, we all have chips implanted at birth?
I assume this is how companies want it to work (Score:2)
They still get a decent number of kids online but also get plausible deniability. Once you've required users to lie or cheat to bypass your "safeguards" you are no longer liable for any harm, right?
Age checks turn access into a game (Score:2)
Kids like games and are good at finding workarounds for silly rules.
Meanwhile, clueless politicians live in a fantasy world where they believe they can eliminate anything they don't like by passing a law.
If this were about protecting kids (Score:2)
Then parents would face the death penalty for letting their poor innocent children access the infinite horrors of social media.
I am one of those parents (Score:2)
Did it for Facebook primarily, was the preferred social media of the time.
The caveat we gave the kids was that before adding a single friend, they added both parents, and their grandparents.
Ingsoc defeated. (Score:1, Funny)
Fuck off, you authoritarian vermin!