My journey through ETEC 523 has led me down a rabbit hole of information surrounding policies concerning underage mobile users and the content that underage mobile users are consuming. For Assignment 3, I have decided to take a look at the past, present, and future speculations around age-verification mechanisms and their relationship with the underage mobile userbase. For this speculation, I have decided add a new episode to my speculative podcast title “Imagine” that I started in a previous course (ETEC 540). Please click below to access Imagine Ep. 2: January 1st, 1900.
Credits
Voice changing effects:
Music:
- Night Vigil by Kevin MacLeod
- Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5746-night-vigil
- License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Editing Software:
- GarageBand
References
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10SuqkrKqPyYZoCpuhjujr4mpzrzif0p2SA05ZZE8pGA/edit?usp=sharing
*If you are interested in listening to Imagine Ep. 1: Predictive Text, please click HERE.
Hi Kelvin
This is great science fiction with a lot of imagination! I really enjoyed the podcasting.
One question about the impact on student learnings. Would you shed some light on how would this future technology impact learning? Thanks!
Hi Kelvin,
I love speculative fiction and am currently writing one for ETEC 540 as well! I think you are right in predicting that age verification technology will change in the near future, especially when pretty soon, all content/knowledge is going to come from online sources. I do, however, think that restrictions and children always have a Red Queen relationship. As one develops, the other learns to overcome it, and the cycle continues! If age verification technology becomes mainstream, I then question, who is going to determine what is and is not age appropriate for given content? Depending on who you ask – users, teachers, parents – you will get a different answer for what age is ok for any specific content. For example, some parents do not think that their children are ready to read the novels selected by my school’s English department. Another example, the legal drinking age vs. driving age vs. voting age is a hotly debated topic in schools. We also have to be aware that some children mature faster than others, and while some content’s appropriateness can be set by age, others might be better set by considering the cultural/academic preparation a child has had. I think these issues are hurdles to overcome when thinking about setting age limits.
Hi Ying,
Thank you for your questions. You have touched on some very important points when it comes to age-verification. The questions that you have posed will probably come down to the use of “parental consent” when determining whether or not something is age-appropriate for each given child. Some companies are already implementing more stringent parental consent policies, which require the parents to basically agree to the Terms of Use for their children. This can look like a variety of different things, but one example would be when a child goes to sign up for an account and they are not the required age, the child gives the parent a code that is linked to their account, the parent signs in under their own account and verifies their child’s account. This type of parental consent policy could work hand-in-hand with biometrics, where the biometric data determines that the child is not old enough and automatically sends a request to the parent to give consent. This way, the responsibility falls on the parents of the child and not on the child themselves, which is the main focus and goal for the changes that need to occur in the age-verification world.
I see! I suppose the rationale behind this method has to do with liability? Companies want to put all legal responsibilities to parents?
This is a fascinating idea and something I often think about. I always thought there was no way to truly know if the user is telling the truth about their age and what mechanisms could be put in place to change that. Unfortunately, the recording keeps looping back and replaying the same section over and over so I have not yet been able to listen to the full episode. Maybe it is just my device so let me know if there is somewhere else I can access it.
Hi Erin,
Thank you for trying to take a listen to the episode. I appreciate your insight and thoughts about what you were able to hear. The recording seems to be working on my end, but are you able to let me know where it keeps looping back? Also, if you hit the 3 dots to bring up more options next to the embedded player, you should be able to download the episode in an mp3 format which might help mitigate the issue.
Thanks Kelvin,
It was looping part of the intro but I tried a different device and it worked perfectly!
I also remember the “moral dilemma” I faced when trying to sign up for Club Penguin as a kid and having to decide to actually ask for parental permission or to simply push the button saying that I was over 13. This always made me wonder “how could they possibly know?” or “what will happen if they find out?”. I had thought that age verification could be somehow worked into our official documents such as birth certificates, drivers licences and passports which could be used in theses situations, but your idea of biometrics takes that a step further and I think it has real potential. Do you think that our current devices could be updated and retrofitted to support this technology, and if so how?
Outstanding work! I really enjoyed the podcast format. I laughed a little when you mentioned entering the 1900-year-old birthday because I still do that with all the accounts I create online. The date of birth age verification mechanism that you mentioned is definitely not a great tool to hinder underaged children from accessing adult content. I’m my opinion it seems like the only purpose is to protect the website or company since the individual claims responsibility after entering the information. Your A3 topic is definitely relevant and something that need to be addressed. You mentioned biometric security age verifications as an option, voice recognition, etc would definitely a great deterrent for children accessing non-age-appropriate information, but at what cost? I’m the kind of guy who enters in my wrong birthday because I don’t want to give out my personal information so using biometric means seems even more invasive. What is to stop that information from being stored and sold much like are online information now? Does this mean that information could be limited online based on language or accent? I could definitely see issues arise from that.
Again fantastic job, truly a mind-opening and enjoyable experience.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for listening to my project! The question about the invasiveness of biometrics and the data that they produce is definitely one that is concerning and that I wish I would have had more time to address in the episode. As of right now, biometric data is regulated and must be stored within the consumer device, not within applications. This is a regulation that was establish under the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Framework, which is an organization that is pushing the use of biometrics for security and privacy reasons.
https://fidoalliance.org/fido-explained-2/
Thank you for your thoughts and questions about my project!