Are you old enough?

This simple statement should be made an international standard, hereby dubbed ISO10+. I have been to numerous sites with almost as many age verification tactics. From the mundane, click “I Agree I am Old Enough” to the downright insulting, enter your birtdate.

Seriously, who, over the age of 9, would enter their real birthdate to access content on the itnernet. Let’s say you were not old enough, but still stupid enough to enter your birthdate. What happens when you are told you aren’t old enough? You go back and enter a new birthdate!

Does this really protect anyone, other than those with an IQ lower than my cat’s? Would anyone that couldn’t circumvent these age verification techniques even understand what lies beyond should they inadvertently gain access?

I know it’s a legal requirement, but couldn’t you make these things simple enough as to not annoy the millions who want to see your content. An “Are You Old Enough?” button is also much cheaper to develop than an entire your birthday form, it will also stop just as many illegal viewers. Shouldn’t it be enough to just let your visitor know that they me be about to view questionable content?

All my DVDs and games have a sticker on them to make sure I don’t watch them accidentally, but they function exactly the same as all the ones without stickers. Can’t we do the same for websites? A little MA15+ sticker in the top-right should be all we need. Then make sure the first page doesn’t have questionable content, and contains a link to the T&C of using the site. Just don’t bother me with it!

I would like to see statistics from some such website showing me how many people were born on 1st January, and how many people failed age verification and tried again 2 seconds later. Get some real stats on whether these things work before using them.

Love - Hate