https://www.pcworld.com/article/2007644/esrb-plans-to-scan-kids-faces-to-enforce-ratings-system.html

  • GnastyGnuts [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I'm sorry, how do they plan to implement something like this? Privacy violations aside, I don't know how they would even do such a thing.

    Are they going to require consoles to have scanning devices and make games adopt a facial scan system? Also the ESRB, if memory serves, was a voluntary creation of the game industry to avoid getting fucked with by actual regulations (kind of like the "comics code authority" back when comic-books were new enough to be controversial), so how much pull do they even really have in these matters?

    • FuckYourselfEndless [ze/hir]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I'm guessing Kinect/VR cameras on consoles. I guess you could probably have your phone sync with the console and it asks you to verify your face before the game turns on the console and the phone with some custom app interfaces with the console.

      I'm reading their proposal and so far it seems to just be COPPA-related. Are video game companies being pressured at all to curb minors playing T/M/A rated game

      Yoti was founded in 2014 with a mission to become the world’s most trusted identity platform–enabling people to prove who they are and how old they are. Yoti’s solutions span identityverification, age assurance, digital identity and e-signature solutions. One of Yoti’s coreinnovations is the use of facial analysis for age estimation. Its Facial Age Estimation solution isused by regulated industries as well as gaming, retail, toy brands and public offices, to estimatethe age of their visitors in order to tailor the user experience or to help organizations comply with the law.

      So I get why Yoti wants this. I do not get what the ESRB is getting out of this other than maaaaybe regulating harder to stop people from maybe seeing elected governments as better regulators of video game ratings.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I'm sorry, how do they plan to implement something like this? Privacy violations aside, I don't know how they would even do such a thing.

      They probably don't know either, and will hire a bunch of consultants or turn it over to the espionage ghouls to make up a solution that is somehow even more cruel and invasive.

      God they really will not relent until every child in the world is confined to a temperature controlled padded pod that reads their mind to assure they only think thoughts amenable to whatever the current ruling clique is.