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I went to a concert the other night and while I wasn’t thrilled to find myself paying $20 for a “large” beer sized somewhere between a reasonable drinking glass and a typical Dixie Cup, I was thrilled when the cashier asked me to produce my ID before selling me the beer.
For a 56-year-old man who sports a rather full, very white beard, it doesn’t get much better than being carded by a twenty or thirty-something (or even a forty-something) cashier, because it suggests the cashier believes you might be younger than they are.
Granted, the lighting inside the arena was dimmed for the performance and the strobing lights from the stage were all the cashiers had to work with, but it still gave me a momentary jolt of belief: Maybe I still look closer to the cradle than the grave, if you will.
Other nice things about this incident of IRL age verification included:
- When I returned to the counter later for another overpriced beer, the same cashier didn’t card me a second time
- The cashier didn’t make a copy of my ID, including sensitive personally identifiable information, to be stored indefinitely on a server somewhere
- I wasn’t issued a “Beer PIN” or “Secure Adult Beverage Password” to forget in between trips to the concession stand
- Neither the national, state nor local government seemed to give a shit whether I was there having a beer that night
I find myself contrasting this experience – which took place in the context of a physical space where old farts like myself were mixed in with minors (mostly accompanied by their parents, but not legally obliged to be), as alcohol was sold from behind the same counter as the popcorn – with the one many elected officials want you to have when consuming adult content on the internet.
For example, in the UK, apparently even if you are using an age verification method offered by a major manufacturer of digital devices like Apple, that might not be good enough to satisfy the government.
The folks from Ofcom, the UK’s regulatory body responsible for administering the country’s Online Safety Act, say they “expect tech firms to ensure age checks are highly effective before introducing them.”
Honestly, that seems reasonable enough an expectation. But are we allowed to have the same opinion concerning government regulations? Is it unreasonable to expect our legislators to demonstrate the laws they pass will be effective before those regulations get scrawled into enforceable form?
And therein lies the rub. Absent an ID check that is even more obtrusive than those required under UK law (or U.S. law, for that matter), age verification remains an uncertain proposition.
As noted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “most platforms offer age estimation options like face scans as a first line of age assurance.” While these options “vary in intrusiveness… their main problem is inaccuracy, particularly for marginalized users.” (Emphasis added)
Thus far, age verification mandates established by state and national governments have included a fair degree of wiggle room to those implementing age verification schemes. So long as you rely on a commercially available method that conforms to what the law requires, you’re likely in compliance with the law.
If, on the other hand, you are an adult user who gets denied access because one of these methods decides you’re a minor… oh well. Sucks to be you, I guess?
Here’s my concern: what happens the first time there’s a high-profile case involving a minor who circumvents age verification technology in some way to access restricted materials online? When that minors’ parents raise a stink, will the legislature behind the law in their jurisdiction shrug and say “Well, a few kids are bound to slip through the cracks,” or will there be a push to tighten the law and require substantially more intrusive age verification methods?
I have little confidence that our elected officials will err to the site of liberty on this one. Before you know it, we might be scanning our retinas and thumbprints simply for the privilege of accessing online smut.
Here’s hoping those scans don’t cost $20 a pop – or if they do, they at least come with a reasonably large beer.
