#age-gating

[misfit-mania-the-first]

EARN It Act is back, and so are its sibling bills

The us government is currently trying to destroy privacy and encryption online under the guise of protecting children. These four bills, along with age-gating internet usage will lead to abortion arrests, widespread grooming of children, and loss of all privacy with age verification.

Here are some links to learn more. I don’t expect you to take me at my word. I want you to understand what’s happening.

https://www.badinternetbills.com/ has a summary of each bill and a section for contacting your lawmakers, signing petitions, and even more links with useful information about what exactly these would do to the internet

https://linktr.ee/stopkosa this linktree has a lizzo contact link to let her know, an open letter against KOSA, a call script, petitions, and a link to a discord that is completely focused on fighting all bills and acts listed above

I understand you’re burnt out. I know this is the third time we’ve had to fight Earn it, but they are trying to wear us down, trying to make us weak so they can slip these in and take us down. We can’t let them win.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Podcasting "How To Make a Child-Safe TikTok"

This week on my podcast, I read my recent Medium column, “How To Make a Child-Safe TikTok: Have you tried not spying on kids?” The column was inspired by one of the most bizarre exchanges during the Congressional grilling of TokTok CEO Shou Chew:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-make-a-child-safe-tiktok-be08fbf94b0d

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/17/have-you-tried-not-spying/#coppa

If you heard anything about that hearing, it was likely this. Rep Buddy Carter, Republican of Georgia, demanded to know whether Tiktok used “the phone’s camera to determine whether the content that elicits a pupil dilation should be amplified by the algorithm?”

https://www.c-span.org/video/?526609-1/tiktok-ceo-testifies-house-energy-commerce-committee-hearing

Chew replied, “We do not collect body, face or voice data to identify our users. We do not.” Carter pressed him, asking “How do you determine what age they are then?”

Chew said, “We rely on age-gating as our key age assurance.” Carter assumed tuckercarlsonian expression of perplexity and asked for more information. Chew explained: “It’s when you ask the user what age they are.” Carter was clearly baffled by this.

Chew added, “this is a real challenge for our industry because privacy versus age assurance is a really big problem.” Carter interrupted him: “you keep talking about the industry, we’re talking about TikTok here.”

This was a remarkable exchange, even by the standards of Congressional hearings on technology, a genre that includes “a series of tubes,” “Senator, we run ads,” and “Will you commit to ending finsta?”

Chew was completely and terribly correct, of course. The way that the entire industry complies with COPPA — the law that prohibits data-gathering on under-13s without parental consent — is by asking every used to tick a box that says “I am over 13.” This is such an inadequate and laughable figleaf that the Congressdunderhead from Georgia can (possibly) be forgiven for assuming that “age verification” involved some kind of digital phrenology by way of facial scanning.

But beyond being yet another entry in the annals Congressional Pig-Ignorance On Tech, the exchange reveals a massive blind-spot about the entire business of kids’ privacy, and the legislative intention of COPPA, a law passed in 1998, before the age of ubiquitous commercial internet surveillance — but not before people understood that this would be an important subject.

One thing to note here is how rare COPPA is. The US has very near to zero federal privacy laws. There’s the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which is about as up-to-date as you might imagine given that it was passed in 1986. Then there’s the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, which bans video-store clerks from revealing which porn you (or more to the point, Members of Congress) have rented.

And then there’s COPPA, which requires parental consent for data-gathering on pre-teens. And that’s basically…it.

COPPA’s got a checkered legislative history; a lot of the “parental consent” language is about ensuring that kids can’t get access reproductive health information and services, but as with any contentious piece of lawmaking, COPPA passed due to a coalition with different priorities, and part of that coalition just wanted to make sure that companies weren’t spying on kids.

Because — as both Buddy Carter and Shou Chew — can attest, it’s really hard to get parental consent at scale. Like, how do you even know if you’re talking to a kid’s parent or guardian if you’re not allowed to gather information on that kid? And how do you know if you’re talking to a kid or an adult when you gather any information, on any user?

Even if facial recognition technology had been widespread in 1986, I think we can all agree that Congress’s intent wasn’t to “protect kids’ privacy” by subjecting every child who used a computer to an invasive biometric scan. How could you comply with COPPA, then?

Well, one possibility is to never spy on users.

OK, not never. But only in very special circumstances — situations in which users would be willing to go through a reasonably thorough identification procedure. There are some situations in which it would be relatively straightforward to do this for parental consent, too: schools, pediatricians and libraries typically encounter children at the same time as their parents or guardians.

And for the rest of it, companies could just not spy.

The truly bizarre thing is how bizarre this suggestion comes across. It is essentially beyond the imagination of both Buddy Carter and Shou Chew that Tiktok could comply with COPPA by not gathering any user-data. After all COPPA, doesn’t prohibit providing web access to under-13s without parental consent — it prohibits spying on under-13s.

It’s not just Congressdunderheads and Tiktok CEOs who treat “don’t spy on under-13s” as a synonym for “don’t let under-13s use this service.” Every tech product designer and every general counsel at every tech company treats these two propositions as equivalent, because they are literally incapable of imagining a surveillance-free online service.

Which is funny, given another part of the Congressional interview. Chew says, “The only face data that you’ll get, that we collect is when you use the filters that put, say, sunglasses on your face, we need to know where your eyes are.” Carter interrupts him to say, “Why do you need to know where the eyes are if you’re not seeing if they’re dilated?” (my god this guy is horny for pupils).

Chew finishes, “and the data is stored locally on your local device and deleted after the use, if you use it for facial” (emphasis mine).

The Tiktok app could store the list of accounts you follow on your device, and send requests to the Tiktok servers for their updates, and the servers could fulfill those requests without logging them. Your device could analyze the videos you interact with and ask the Tiktok servers for suggestions based on those criteria — again, without Tiktok logging your info.

There’s no millennial prophet who came down off a mountain with two stone tablets circa 2002 and intoned, “Nerds of the world, thou shalt stop rotating thine logfiles, and lo! Thou shalt mine them for actionable market intelligence.” There is nothing intrinsic to the idea of letting people talk to each other, or search the web, or look at videos, that requires surveillance. The surveillance is a choice, which necessitated hundreds of billions of dollars in capital expenditures, and which should have been understood as illegal under COPPA.

But COPPA hasn’t been meaningfully enforced for a quarter of a century. That’s because the ad-tech industry mobilizes some of the hundreds of billions of dollars it gains through spying to block privacy law enforcement and the passage of any new privacy laws. David Cohen, CEO of the surveillance lobby group IEA, told his members, “Extremists are winning the battle for hearts and minds in Washington, D.C., and beyond. We cannot let that happen.”

His co-conspirators at the anti-privacy lobbying group Privacy For America (yes, really) told Congress that commercial surveillance saves every American $30,000/year — in other words, they value the data they steal from you every year at $30,000:

https://www.privacyforamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Privacy-for-America-Letter-in-Support-of-Preemptive-Comprehensive-Privacy-Legislation.pdf

But as Julia Angwin points out, this figure is as absurd as the name “Privacy for America.” The number is pure fiction:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1815663116#abstract

It doesn’t matter how much the data caught in the ad-tech industry’s nonconsensual harvest is worth — all that matters is that it produces the surplus needed to keep privacy law enforcement and expansion at bay.

Tiktok shouldn’t spy on our kids. Neither should anyone else. America doesn’t need a law banning Tiktok, it’s needs a law banning Tiktok’s surveillance — as well as the surveillance of all its rivals:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/30/tik-tok-tow/#good-politics-for-electoral-victories

Because the Chinese state doesn’t need Tiktok to spy on Americans. In the freewheeling, unregulated privacy “marketplace,” all that data is for sale — Chinese spies can just plunk down their credit-cards next to everyone else who buys our data and mobilizes it to compromise us, market to us, and stalk us.

Here’s the podcast episode:

https://craphound.com/news/2023/04/17/how-to-make-a-child-safe-tiktok/

And here’s a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive; they’ll host your stuff for free, forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_443/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_443_-_How_To_Make_a_Child-Safe_TikTok.mp3

And here’s the direct RSS link for my podcast:

https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

THIS IS THE LAST DAY for the Kickstarter campaign for the audiobook of my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

[Image ID: The exterior of a corporate office building, with the TikTok logo and wordmark over its revolving doors. From behind the revolving doors glares the hostile red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey." In front of the doors is a 'you must be this tall to ride' amusement-park cutout of a boy with a bow-tie, holding out his arm to indicate the minimum required height.]

[theharlotofferelden]

Genuinely loved the experience of being at camp for the first time and seeing all the companions with their tits out like they're all gonna go clubbin or some shit

Then there’s Gale

Who's just. So utterly swagless that his clothes smell like dusty old books. My man doesn't give a fuck about the drip he's getting his ass ready for bed

[mzcain27]

I think game studios should just release their character creators online. For the times when I don’t wanna play the whole game, just the lil dress up part

[hekuuu]

my favorite genre of games is the one where you can gather a team of idiots and wander around with them doing sidequests

[palefrogs]

RPG Elves by Dungeon Meshi's Ryoko Kui

[raintides]

they're going shopping

[crapet-illu]

YES COLE PLEASE HE NEEDS YOU.

(Cole is a character from Dragon Age Inquisition, the very best boi)

[literallybyronic]

poetic cinema

[sapphic-violets-ink]

[razumdars]

Anyways while racism in the writer's room is definitely a thing and does affect how black characters are written and portrayed, to say "well this character wasn't written well (because of racism) so THAT'S why I find them boring!" is just disingenuous and trying to shove blame elsewhere.

Wyll may have been shafted in terms of writing, but he still clearly had more effort and time put into him than Halsin. And yet out of those two characters, which one is more popular in the fandom?

Dragon Age: Inquisition may bend over backwards to make Vivienne seem like a villain at times, and her opinion on the Circles is a bit complex, but that game also has Cullen in it - who was an antagonist for two previous games, and also has even stricter views on mages and the Circles. And out of the two of them, who's the one people are more forgiving to?

Preston Garvey might have a bugged radiant quest that means he says the same thing over and over and over again, but why is it annoying when he does it and endearing when it's characters in other games? (Brynjolf's "Sorry lass, I've got important things to do" comes to mind)

While yes, we should hold writers and developers accountable for the racism they bake into their games, this does not change that fandom is a transformative space. Fandoms will regularly take characters who were underwritten, who were treated poorly by their source material, or who were overlooked, and create beautiful works of art and fiction surrounding them.

So it's quite telling when they refuse to do this with the black characters.

[eff-plays]

Ok so I watched the interview with Stephen Rooney, Astarion's writer, and here are some highlights. (I'm an aspiring writer and current game design student who wants to write for games so I'm sorry if some of these insights aren't as interesting to you as they are to me <3)

He calls Astarion his "horrible little vampire boy"

He loves seeing the fandom around Astarion<3

He did write other characters in the game, but mostly NPCs surrounding Astarion or his storyline, so it mostly revolved around Astarion

Astarion is not as connected to other companions/Origins as, for example, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, or Wyll and Karlach are to each other, but he is still reactive to their stories, even if it's just to stand off to the side and laugh when something terrible happens

He had a clear sense of where Astarion's story would start and end, but it got "muddy in the middle", but those are also moments where the best ideas come from

They write from the general idea that every character has one "good" and one "evil" ending, in order to give the player choice. RIP Ascendant apologists :(

According to Stephen, two of the most important aspects of Astarion's character (to keep consistent when bringing him to Idle Champions, at least) is that he enjoys violence, but is also fun about it

"He has a certain appreciation for violence, I guess? A bit of a murdery streak. [...] He's a vampire, he's all about blood, and he's all about, kind of, those darker sides of humanity. [..] But at the same time, he is ... He is really fun, he's really fun to write, he's really fun to have in your party, and it's very important for me that that is also represented."

"He's gonna stab you, but will have a smile on his face as he does it? I mean, I dunno. That's kind of him in a nutshell."

Larian would not have allowed for Astarion to be a typical brooding Dracula type, and there were scenes that were shot down for not being original enough

The main thing about Astarion was trying to get a "sense of fun." It would be easy to write a character that was very unlikable, and they absolutely did not want to do that

Rooney says Astarion is consistently terrible throughout the game and awful in a whole lot of ways, but he also needed to be charming enough that you could tolerate his presence and wanted him around

Rooney also had a lot of input on Astarion's stats (meaning the 10 Charisma is probalby 100% intentional)

He also had input on how certain lines should be delivered, even though the writers didn't directly work with voice actors

The way Astarion moves and poses is "all Neil"

Apparently, Neil Newbon worked on the character for years and Rooney did not speak to him once, though his voice work did influence how Astarion's lines were written and it became a "feedback loop" (Possible context for "ONLY SLIGHTLY, NEIL")

There were no points where a line delivery drastically changed Astarion's writing; rather it was a constant, slow evolution

However, there was one very spoilery moment where Neil gave such emotion to some "basic" lines that it fundamentally changed the scene (WHAT IS IT OMG)

It's difficult to balance approval, as you don't want to straight up write a monster. Every character needs to have some humanity in them. So if it comes to leaving the party, it needed to be the result of something central to said character. They wanted to be mindful of situations that would cause actual rifts between characters. (I assume this is why most generic disapprovals/approvals are +/- 1 or 2, while character-related ones give +/-5 or more)

However, as they don't write straight up horrible people/monsters, it doesn't come up as often as one might think.

The interviewer makes a point about how characters like Astarion and Lae'zel are good examples of how to play "evil" characters, as they are maybe not the best people but are still eager and willing to stick around the other party members

They worked to make sure the characters would work as a group, no matter the configuration of the group. The characters needed to be on the same path, even if they don't always agree or walk that path the same way.

Stephen Rooney is very proud of the "climactic" scene of Astarion's story. (AS HE SHOULD BE.) He even had to step away from the computer and have an emotional moment. Me too, man.

He's also "extremely pleased" that there's a point where you can punch Astarion in the face. "Actually, that one might be my favorite part" A MAN OF THE PEOPLE!!

Stephen Rooney's tip on what specific thing you should try out with Astarion: When he's trying to get a "sneaky nibble" at night, you should "probably" let him bite you. Way ahead of you there, sir.

No discussion about Astarion's romance unfortunately, but that's that!

[fippydarkpaw]

Don't know how this romance will end, but history tells me in tears.

[dungeonfood]

She's such a nerd I love her

[chaosroid]

[arisushanti]

attention all bg3 players who have also played any dragon age game!! (which is probably everyone, let’s be real)

im conducting an experiment, so if everyone could please reblog with their romance choices for both games

regards