Age Verification - Upcoming Change

independent_

That seems to be the main concern here - that no other services are doing this. If other services were beginning to implement this as well, perhaps people wouldn’t feel this way. It feels at the moment like it’s not legislation, it’s policy. They are 2 completely different things. Age verification for dangerous things, like alcohol, cigarettes and knives, is the law. Age verification for energy drinks and OTC medications is the company policy of many retailers, but it’s not the law. It winds me up no end when people try to say policies are law. It’s not illegal for someone over 25 to be here, and it’s not illegal for someone outside of the UK to be here, either. It’s outside of your own remit, so it’s policy, not law.

Amy22

I just feel like it's always one thing after another right now and soon enough there won't be anyone on the mix anymore which will be very sad to see. What happened to the whole community feel of things and what happened to actually listening to young people. It feels like both of those values have been chucked out of the window right now and pushed aside. Its very disappointing to see for a young persons mental health charity actually. I know that the actual mix community is working hard right now and I feel sorry for all the mods and staff on here who are trying their best right now despite certain higher ups clearly not doing their jobs properly and just deciding to make things worse on here. Firstly my main issue is to do with uploading a picture of yourself, there are a lot of vulnerable young people on here who may not want to take a photo of themselves because of certain reasons alongside staying anonymous. The reason why I joined this community was because it was anonymous whereas other support services weren't. It worries me to think what is next after the age verification, wanting our postcodes etc. This isn't right at all, in fact it's wrong to do. It's probably causing a lot of unnecessary stress for users right now alongside their main worries and concerns.

Also, I'd thought I'd share a bit of advice in a way from being a previous member of a charity in my town which supported neurodiverse adults which is now closed. Their CEO too left and a new CEO stepped in. Things started going down hill from there and previously a while ago too. The reason why the charity failed was because of a lack of communication and a lack of passion for the people attending the place. Hence, why it closed its door for good. Now your probably wondering why I am talking about a charity in my area and what's this got to do with this post. But let me tell you, I see the same pattern that happened with that charity with this one and I fear the same thing is going to happen eventually because of a poor lack of communication and passion for young people. So if you want to continue doing this then be prepared for a rocky road ahead thats all in saying. This is a young people's site and it should continue to help us by actually listening to us and making sure our voices are heard. Now I'm not asking for anything fancy from you buy what I am asking is that we are heard more and that users have more of a say so in some decisions on the boards especially mods as we are the ones using this service the most. Plus some people may not also have any ID either or passports etc so I don't know how the ID aspect would work for that. Plus I agree with you @independent_ on the whole AI analysing the age as it has been proven to be quite faulty and has analysed people wrongly especially when it comes to age. Also, anyone could technically upload a picture of someone else and use that, it doesn't stop people from catfishing, the same with the whole geofencing thing people can tick the yes box quite easily.

Overall, I fear for what the future of the mix will be (that's if there is a future for it as dark as that sounds I wouldent be suprised). However, us users need to continue to stick together and fight against this. Never stop amplifying your voices and this goes out to the community staff and mods here too as well because I know you have worked so hard.

JJLemon18

independent_ wrote: »

That seems to be the main concern here - that no other services are doing this. If other services were beginning to implement this as well, perhaps people wouldn’t feel this way. It feels at the moment like it’s not legislation, it’s policy. They are 2 completely different things. Age verification for dangerous things, like alcohol, cigarettes and knives, is the law. Age verification for energy drinks and OTC medications is the company policy of many retailers, but it’s not the law. It winds me up no end when people try to say policies are law. It’s not illegal for someone over 25 to be here, and it’s not illegal for someone outside of the UK to be here, either. It’s outside of your own remit, so it’s policy, not law.

I wonder what things we've all agreed to in the very necessary consent form for the merger...

Siena

A lot of people struggling with their mental health find it difficult to even take a picture of themselves at all whether that’s for social media or to send to a friend cause of insecurity - my sister never takes a picture of herself yet she is very pretty but all her social media accounts are stuck on her 13 year old self when she’s 26 and she doesn’t even struggle with her mental health and you’ll expecting people to send a picture of themselves to an anonymous website that they probably joined to speak about things freely without judgement and no one knowing who you are. Crazy concept if you ask me.