
UK govt considering facial recognition to verify age of online users - rahuldottech
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/18/gov_splashed_22m_on_failed_age_verification_policy/
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MaxBarraclough
Not even a week after they conceded that their previous such effort was a
failure. [0]

I recall reading somewhere that the reason for all this nonsense (don't forget
this stuff too [1]) may be that the Conservative Party still wants to score
points with their ultra-conservative base after legalising gay marriage.

I have no doubt that the upshot of this latest effort will be just like the
last time: wasting a few million pounds of tax funds, and online mockery.

[0]
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/16/age_verification_po...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/16/age_verification_pornblocking_plans_shelved/)

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-
flapping/2014/dec/...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-
flapping/2014/dec/05/uk-pornography-law-scientific-perspective-children-
safety)

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hazeii
It's likely not a serious proposal; possibly more aimed at shifting people's
perception of what's reasonable towards a 'more moderate' solution that would
previously have been considered unacceptable.

Common technique: have someone not too senior (or retired) propose something
outrageous, then introduce what was really planned all along and present it as
a compromise.

~~~
Funes-
>more aimed at shifting people's perception of what's reasonable towards a
'more moderate' solution that would previously have been considered
unacceptable.

Playing with the Overton window [0], then. Interesting.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window).

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fredley
Facial recognition is almost universally trivial to defeat as an
authentication mechanism. A colleague had a Microsoft Surface with facial
unlock. I could hold up my phone to the camera, with his Slack profile picture
fullscreen, and it would unlock.

~~~
shadowprofile77
But how easy would it be to defeat as an identification mechanism in public
areas when used for widespread surveillance? That's the real aim of facial
recognition for governments I think.

~~~
fredley
[https://cvdazzle.com/](https://cvdazzle.com/)

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dominicr
The MP who said this, Nicky Morgan, has a less than stellar reputation. Sounds
like the comment was purely a case of throwing out a buzzword as a terrible
answer to a good question.

The minute any implementation of this hit the real world it'd fail. Teenagers
are very good at working around technology, whilst anyone other than the
average caucasian is likely to get an incorrect age assessment.

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tjpnz
>The MP who said this, Nicky Morgan, has a less than stellar reputation.

Based on the Wikipedia article her career has been one long series of
blunders.

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toyg
In the current government, that’s a prerequisite. PM himself sets the tone.

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qubex
I presume they expect to do this by means of webcams or uploaded photographs.
What’s to prevent somebody holding up an enlarged photograph or sending a JPEG
of Uncle Pete?

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rwmj
Chrome actually makes this easy. It has a literal option "\--use-file-for-
fake-video-capture" which does what it says.
[https://webrtc.org/testing/](https://webrtc.org/testing/)

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mantap
This isn't a serious proposal it's just incoherent ramblings of somebody who
doesn't know what they are talking about.

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croon
So either identifying individuals based on a national database mapped against
profile and age (privacy nightmare), or guessing age based on looks using a
janky ML model (very error prone).

What could possibly go wrong...

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jmkni
Taking their cues from China now?

