This is a clever way to bypass. If they get wise and somehow filter out Sam Porter Bridges' face, you could always fire up any of the games of comparable visual realism which let you design your own character's appearance.

It's fun that one can use games for it, but it shouldn't be difficult to do the same through AI-generated imagery either, which isn't much more difficult.

Even though this method is flawed, one shouldn't really use ID-only verification either imho, as it's a security risk to upload any official document like that (ref. Tea app leaks).

The whole age verification that the UK wants to impose has been quite the impossible task from the beginning. Creating government-backed education for (future) parents about how to raise a kid and protect them in today's digital society would be more efficient than this, if we really are thinking of what is best for the kids. But alas, there are zero requirements to become a parent...

I've seen this suggested elsewhere and it seems like the least intrusive suggestion to me - why not simply use the device as the age verification. Almost every phone/tablet/computer already knows your age through it's own sign-up/activation method, so why not allow the device to offer an API that provides age verification to sites that require it.

It could simply be a permissions-based answer where an adult site requests a yes/no answer to the question "is this user an adult" from the device and the user is prompted to provide the permissions for the site to have that data.

This would solve the problem for the vast majority of iphone/android/windows/macos consumers.

I mean, great? Most mainstream devices do however, whether it's an AppleID, Google account or Microsoft account.

Yeah I do too, but so would anyone who was seriously thinking about this in terms of keeping kids from looking at porn rather than restricting access to "adult content" (whatever that means) more broadly. Any programmer worth their salt would have immediately suggested "hey this is a bad idea we should do it this other way" when asked about the viability of the current solution and yet this was ignored.

Neither is taking a picture of nearly any stranger about to take a bite of food at a fast food place and then walking over and snapping another picture of them. What they gonna do about it?

You don't need a google account to use android.

Great! Now everyone is identifiable through their Google or Apple account.

Also people like me where the phone has no clue about my age are out too.

Wow now the site knows my google account, way better than sending a picture of myself.

Spoiler alert- the point isn't to keep kids from looking at porn, it's to keep adults from looking at it too.

You can't use a picture of me eating noodles to open a bank account.

No, the site wouldn't know the account, it's the device providing the verification.

I think it's worth remembering that this is a suggestion, and not even originally mine. If you're happier to use the current multitude of age verification services that differ on a per-site basis, with all the security vulnerabilities, risk, and inconvenience that entails, then feel free. Or bypass them using the methods suggested.

I'm literally just providing a better technical solution than has been implemented. What I'm not suggesting is "this is the answer to everyone's problem".

No, I don't know where you've got that idea from.

So hows this gonna verify anything?

That works too. Then Google knows that you are using this porn site.

If only the phone itself does the verification, it is just like klicking yes with extra steps.

How about two gym memberships and a library card?

Tbh just take any stock photo from image search online

Just get an AI to generate a face. If it's prepared to accept photos from video games and it'll probably accept AI generated images.

Not really that I expected competence.