Jul 17, 2:10 PM EDT
Online Age Verification May Prove Complex
By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer
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NEW YORK (AP) — At MySpace.com and many other popular online hangouts, a 30-something woman can celebrate her Sweet 16 over and over with just a click of the mouse. A 12-year-old can quickly mature to meet the sites’ minimum age requirements, generally 14, while an adult looking to chat with teens can virtually shed several years.
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It would seem that the ISPs know who to bill for the cost of an internet account. That consists of a primary and zero or more secondary ids. It would seem that if there was a secure protocol to establish and transfer that knowledge this could be a solved problem.
Let’s assume for a moment that the unit of identity is the email address. The email address is defined by user name and ISP name separated by an at sign. A web site could inquire of the ISP does this email represent an adult, a teen ager, or a child. The ISP would have to provision the status of the email address by a query to the primary id. Ideally when the primary permits the secondary account it could be characterized at that time. I’d envision: adult, tween (i.e. between 13 and 18), and child (i.e., under 13).
To prevent spammers from using the service, the service could make it a stylized communication. The web site could inquire of its hosting entity. The hosting entity could inquire of its ISP. The ISP could inquire of its peers. It’s not a high volume transaction requiring fast turnaround.
SO a spammer could NOT say verify live email addresses or derive live address by submitting every address in a name space.
I’d also envision some type of micropayment per inquiry. Let’s say the inquiry costs the website a penny for the hosting company, a penny for the first ISP, and a penny for the final ISP. ISPs would surely net. It’d all be electronic so it would just be to ensure fairness.
Then web sites could establish reliably legally the age of a user presenting an email. The ISPs could help protect their Customer’s secondary users.
This represents my opinion and not that of my employer. I don’t design protocols for living; I’m just a philosopher. I’ll defer to the experts for feasibility.
Reinke Faces Life 