Hey everyone,
As you’re probably aware last week we introduced Geo-Fencing which checks if a user is in the UK. Here’s our post about it.
.Thank you so much for any questions you've submitted to that thread and please do keep them coming.
So what's happening with age verification?
As you know, The Mix provides support for young people aged 13-25 living in the UK. For The Mix to be compliant, we have a legal requirement to verify the location and age of young people using our online services.
By April, therefore, we’re aiming to introduce Age Verification too. We don’t have a date confirmed yet, but once we do we’ll be sure to let you know (it basically depends on the tech stuff).
How will this affect me?
So, here’s what we can share with you now:
> This will only affect new Discussion Board users for the time being, and will not affect anyone who already has an account.
> When applying to join Community Discussiuon Boards, new users will be asked to visit an external site where they will take a photo of themselves and/or of their ID (we still need to confirm the ID option!).
> The image will then be used to estimate the age of the person by being analysed by a trained algorithm. The image will also be checked to make sure it is a real person.
> This estimated age will be securely sent to our Discussion Boards, saved to their user account, and will only be seen by our internal team. No images are stored, shared, or used for any other purpose than estimating the age.
> Once the age has been estimated, the image is deleted.
> This means we can check if the user’s estimated age matches the date of birth entered into the sign up form.
Why is this happening?
We’re aware this is a pretty big change, and we do have some time before it’ll go live to discuss how you feel about it. The reason we’re making these changes is because we continuously review and improve our services. We also update our policies and follow updated legislations.
We have a legal duty to implement this, but we also want to be able to offer you reassurance and answer any questions you may have.
How can I ask questions about this or give feedback?
You can share your thoughts and ask questions here below, DM us, or by email community@themix.org.uk. We're here to support you.
