Age Verification or '2 cannibals are eating a clown...'

So, Age verification goes live in beta.... took 'em long enough.

Now if you bother with the secondlife forums you'll have already noticed that it has so many ridiculous problems it's like a bad joke. People unable to use current information or documents to make it work, documents that would work not being available, foriegn citizens unable to use their native documents, requests for documents that aren't normally allowed to be requested, comparative information being 2-4+ years out of date.... and for what?

LL states that it is to promote 'trust'. There are examples given of limiting legal exposure for inworld content providers, and covering LL's legal rear; There are examples of limiting possible engagement of underage users in the main grid. Yet all these things have been addressed by various online venues, with much less hassle and cost to end users, by requiring basic information, like name, age, address, and an aggreement that these facts are true. So why is LL sending it's users through thse silly hurdles requiring copies of documentation in the event that all the above fails? What's wrong with the tried, true, and tested methods?

I have a suspicion that the answer is 'nothing'. Which begs the question, how does LL profit from this excercise in futility?

My thought is that they are using this to upsell their image and their platform to potiential clients. In the process they can also profit directly (by their admitedly soon to be instituted fees) from a relationship with a 3rd party database provider, the database provider additionally profits by being able to update their own outdated records, bootstrapping them into a more competitive postion in their own market. everbody wins.... at least, everyone that matters to LL.

But what do the users get from this? An empty promise of 'trust'? surely if John or Jane Q. Undearge user can supply their parents credit card, they could as easily supply a commonly found ID number? It surely doesn't stop these same people from lying on a form (which is fraud) just as easily as before? Identity theives can just as easily do this now as before. The only difference now will be they get charged to spread the lie.

But it gets better, because on a whim I decided to test their system, by opening and verifying a Main Grid account.... using my 12yo son's (partial) SSN, and was verified in short order! That's right, this system, which we are supposed to place our 'trust' in, just passed a childs identity that should not even qualify for their wretched 'Teen Grid'.

LL and their partners are cooking up a scheme to take a bite out of peoples wallets, and playing us all for clowns in the process....

'does this taste funny to you?'