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Age verification (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by ransomwarelettuce@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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Lately there has been a lot of controversy about age verification and it's implementation in places such as UK and US.

The main critic to this mechanism is due being done through facial recognition or a government ID which are privacy invasive.

So here is my question as someone who comes from IT, wouldn't it be possible to create a device which just gives out true or false depending if the person is of age, given some kind of piece of DNA (hair, blood, nails) ?

I known there is carbon dating, but from what I understand is a bit of complicated process. The human body however shows it's age visually and I would be interested to know if genetically there are some signs as well that could be somewhat used in a automatic process.

Again I come from IT, just curious about the implications and your takes on the problem.

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[–] BillDaCatt@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Try to think of how a bad actor might use what you are suggesting to steal someone's identity. The trouble with any identity verification system is not just how inconvenient it is, but also how criminals will try to abuse the system.

Some kind of entity would have to be in charge of storing and verifying the DNA data. Once that database is created, there will always be the potential for exploitation. Also consider what happens if, or more likely when, that entity changes hands and is run by new people with new agendas? That might not work out so well for the people in that database.

The government has my fingerprints and my drivers license photo. I am not interested in sharing that with any for-profit company. I would be even more resistant to anyone wanting to collect my DNA regardless of the reason.

[–] ransomwarelettuce@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

What I was implying was something local that somehow determined the age of someone, of course such device would have to sign that info with a gov key to limit explotation.

But still everything local, but having to sign the info to make it credible I think like someone suggested a gov issued temp token would be a better solution.