[stingraycharles]

How would that mechanism work in practice, though? If every parent needs to become a trusted authority, wouldn’t that just move the goalpost? Who would be the trusted authority, and who would implement that?

I agree that the mechanism is elegant, but figuring out which entity should be trusted in a way that scales globally is somewhat difficult.

[lrem]

Realistically this would be another service attached to the government ID. Something like this does function in some European countries, doesn’t it?

[xyzal]

It works quite well in Czechia. Upon verification request, you are redirected to a government site, where you select exactly what data (Full name, DOB, address ... ) you intend to share with the entity requesting the information.

I can imagine you could share just your DOB in such a case, while keeping your real identity private. In such a way Discord would learn only your age, keeping everything else from them.

Government learns that Discord was provided your data, but this is supposedly a trusted, regulated entity.

[lrem]

A better system is in beta in Switzerland. Government is the root of trust, but only signs your private cert regarding your ID. All the interaction with third parties is local to your device, the government doesn’t get to know you interacted with Discord. Discord gets a single bit “is the user of this device 16/18 (restricted/full legal autonomy age) years old?” With chain of trust to the government.

[j16sdiz]

It depends on you thread model and how much you trust government.

In your model, government now know you are on discord -- they know where to ask when they want to find you.

It really depends which government you are under.

[IshKebab]

The use of the parent is an example. In reality it would be some official age checking provider (maybe the government).

[spragl]

Yes. I think that wahtever organization that issues your passport, would be a natural choice for setting this up.

But nothing prevents it from being a private company, although I cannot see a sound business model for it. Also it would need to project great credibility for customers to trust them with their information.