this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
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At first I laughed, but in honesty I can’t think of many better verification methods.
My concern with it is the cost and requirement for non-drinkers to acquire alcohol. It’s pretty insensitive to ask a recovering alcoholic or a Muslim for example to go into a pub and buy a beer. Maybe have it as one possible verification method?
You could also get a a piece of paper notarised by a JP.
‘The individual known on Aussie.zone as Gorgritch_Umie_Killa has presented identification to me that demonstrates to my satisfaction that they are over 18’ (signed and stamped).
But neither of these methods are technical solutions.
You joke, but remember the proposed UK porn age verification law? Where the verification would legally have to be done by going down to your local pub?
There are many floors to the beer plan, one of which i may hit, depending on how many different social media services i need to prove my age to...
That JP idea is actually good. Whats better it relies on a system that is already in place and has a high level of trust. A specific Social Media verification Government stipend would be needed for JP's though, as this would become a massive initial, and largish ongoing increase in demand for their services.
My problem is that for privacy reasons, I'm opposed to any system that requires giving information about the sites that you're visiting to anyone other than that site. It's not that I don't trust JPs, it's that I don't believe I should have to tell a JP that I use aussie.zone.
I wasn't exactly proposing it as a solution, the amount of manual work it would generate to have millions of Australians going to JPs around the country with this for all their social media sites staggers the mind. But if it were to be implemented this way, I'm not really sure how to get around the issue of naming the explicit sites you visit. You don't want it to be a blank "this person is verified on every site", because that'll be abused by everyone (and their kids) on every site. There needs to be some sort of personalisation to the verification.
And before anyone proposes it: I have zero interest in you sending me your personal ID. We are not equipped to store that level of sensitive information, and this is a side-hobby. We don't take the site anywhere near seriously enough to take that sort of responsibility on.
For what it's worth, the legislation seems pretty clear on this one point (despite being unbelievably unclear on just about every other point):
How that's going to play out in practice is anybody's guess at this point.
That just reverses the circle of trust. If I can't trust the users not to lie about their age ("trust me, bro") in a DM, then the users can't trust me not to keep copies/sell their private information ("trust me, bro"). That's a super-flawed verification method.