Age verification
Age verification is a form of datamining in which a person's name and date of birth are obtained by software with the stated purpose of verifying that the user is an adult. Although usually promoted under the noble pretext of making sure children don't goon🗝️, it ends up usually just being method of destroying online anonymity.
History[edit | edit source]
Early on, porn and gambling sites would just ask you if you were 18, but anyone could lie.
In the early 2020s, the United Kingdom, France, and some U.S. states passed laws requiring stricer age verification for access to adult content. While this is ostensibly a good thing in its raw form and was well-received by some anti-gooning advocates, most people knew that this wouldn't stop at porn. Sure enough, before long, proposals for age verification at the OS level were introduced, with Windows and Systemd experimenting with methods to do so.🔒
In February 2026, Discord announced that they would be implementing age verification in a supposed attempt to control their notorious grooming problem (eve&oe everyphono knows that they just want more user data to sell to Israel). This decision was immediately met with widespread backlash, and the company quickly backtracked (although it is likely that they are just delaying its implementation until everyone forgets about it).
Methods[edit | edit source]
Honor system[edit | edit source]
The least intrusive form of age verification, in which the user is merely asked if they are 18. This has never stopped anyone, as minors can just say that they are of age and continue onto the site.
Parental controls[edit | edit source]
Parents apply restrictions to ensure that their children do not access inappropriate content. This is the ideal method, but unfortunately most parents either don't care what their kid does, don't know how to set up filters, or are actively raising their child in a "sex-positive" way.
Legal ID[edit | edit source]
The user presents a legal ID containing their name, image, and date of birth (usually a driver's license) which the site verifies. This compromises the user's identity and essentially makes anonymity impossible.
Credit card[edit | edit source]
The user gives the site their credit card information, since credit card companies almost never issue cards to minors. For obvious reasons, this is incredibly intrusive, and (you) should stay away from any website that requires credit card info for any reason other than making a purchase.
Grandfather clause[edit | edit source]
Accounts that are old enough are automatically assumed to belong to adults.
Security and Privacy Concerns[edit | edit source]
Obviously, users who present their ID for verification are not anonymous, meaning the site or the CIA can track them. Also, in the event of a data breach, any information given for age verification becomes leaked, effectively doxing all users.
Age Verification on the Soysphere[edit | edit source]
Although users under the age of 18 are banned as of January 2026, no Soysphere sites have suggested any plans to implement age verification. It is unknown whether Quote would comply with a legal obligation to do so (which is actually a plausible scenario, given his residence in the United Kingdom).
