Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » Age verification badges

Sorry if someone mentioned this before, I’m not going to read the whole discussion at this point. I just wanted to say I think I made myself like half a year younger at registration because I wasn’t familiar with the site and I’m always careful about revealing personal information such as my exact birthday. So while I am over 18 and was over 18 even at registering here, my ID would not match the birth date that I entered.

There would indeed be a certain population of people who would feel safer RPing with people who were verified, if it became an option to do so. As this fear is often based on the potential for imprisonment, permanent registration as a sex offender, or loss of employment, I give those fears a LOT of weight.

But again: As it would cost both money and time and raise some privacy concerns for some, the majority of adults on the site would not bother. It's worth noting that people who chose to ONLY play with those who were verified would be missing out on a huge amount of potential RP themselves, as their RP options would narrow even more dramatically than anyone they were excluding from their potential pool.

Also: Your state ID would be acceptable. Please re-read my first post.

You're not alone in this. You can contact me to get your birthdate corrected.

I really like this idea, but there's also the issue that you'll have to see other forms of IDs besides licences for adults that just don't have a licence.

In some cases that could require state IDs and territory IDs or care cards that have other important and sensitive information on them.

I love this idea, but that's a lot of different kinds of IDs to handle, a lot if money, and a lot of time for just a single person to handle.

I also don't like the idea of the badge because it could lead to deeper distrust of honest adults just for not having the badge. This could hinder honest users from gaining roleplays or friends all because they couldn't pay a fee for their own financial struggle. I understand explaining that it's not required, that's not an issue, but coming from the concern the site holds over someone lying about who they are at all and being stalked, I have no doubts it would lead to users doing this as well.

I am not saying anything about those fears are wrong, over the top, or out of hand. I'm not criticising or belittling them either. I'm just stating a strict concern on not being trusted because you couldn't pay for a badge and losing out on potential friendships and roleplays due to users being legitimately afraid of someone lying about their age because they can't afford to verify.

Re the credit card, not everyone can get a credit card nor wants one despite being an adult. Would there be a secondary option for the second piece of ID?

Debit card, paypal. Same as existing payment options.

Credit cards won't ever be an option. Licenses or other forms of valid ID are the only ones Kim mentioned!

Edit: I think I misread something! Ignore if this didn't answer the question.

This is slightly off topic (please delete if you do not want it on this topic) but just a suggestion as well. Would it be possible to implement some kind of badge for Anon characters and profiles that do not wish to show their age that shows they are 'supposedly' 18+ . It would never tell the exact age of the person, just letting other players know this person is 18 or older. I know we should ask them in PM but when I am browsing characters I have terrible anxiety so I wouldn't want to send a message going 'hey are you 18+ no? Sorry never mind'. I completely understand if thats not something you want. This is just something to consider if we end up not implementing the ID verification.

I've been thinking about this. I think we'd maybe convert the "show game tags" section in the toolbar of character pages to just be a "more info" section, and put the badge in there with the game tags and other stuff.

Edit: just read more closely and realized you weren't talking about the verified badge, just the existing age options. I think the same solution would work there too!

I would absolutely love this. I have 50 anonymous characters give or take and having them all verified automatically when my user account does would be grand. (With the badge on the profile I mean, I know they'd all count as verified anyway without the badge on their actual profile)

I will quickly mention that I positively adore InquisitorCat's idea about anons.

A concern that I don't think I've seen mentioned here yet, and I understand why, but what about the transgendered who still have yet to change their genders and names legally? That is a gigantic vulnerability. That could be showing too much behind the curtain.

That's all I wanted to add to this. Short and sweet.

As the name and gender on the ID would not be shown to anyone but me (or the person I hired to help with this whose jobs it would be to specifically check birthdates,) nor would gender verification be a part of this process, I'm not sure how to lessen the potential distress this process might cause any further without making verification useless or impossible. I'm open to ideas if anyone has them. All I can think to do is stress that it's private.

I wouldn't mind this option, but I'm not completely 100% for it either. (Somewhere like 85% for it with the rest being iffy.) Yes, there are some worries that people may be a bit more biased towards those who have badges against those who don't, but this is for some people's overall peace of mind about being as old as they say they are. As long as it's optional (which it is) and people know that it doesn't affect the credibility of those who don't have have a badge, I'm alright with it. That last part may take a little reminding and reinforcement, but I think it's doable.

I think the old advice of asking plain out if they're a minor and keeping an eye on the person in question is still going to be a thing here no matter what. Even on RPR you can almost always tell who's a minor and who's not. It's a lot more transparent here than any other website I've been on so far, so I feel that it's partially unnecessary. However, I can see this as an eventual option since there has been a small influx of younger (and/or younger-minded) roleplayers here.

So +1, as long as it's done in a practical way. But I do like the idea of taking a photo of your ID while adding your RPR # and making a hand signal. But I do have one question: when it comes to photo IDs, would it be fine to squiggle out the picture, or would that be an issue? Some people may be okay with sharing everything else on their ID except how they look.

I honestly don't have an answer to this yet! I'm going to guess probably no, we'd ask that people not do anything to hide or change portions of their ID. All I can do is promise not to share the photo with anyone, ever.

I'm a little confused. What about this would be a big vulnerability? If it's someone other than Kim reviewing IDs, they'll be under a super strict contract and privacy will be maintained. If someone is uncomfortable verifying with their deadname, then their only option is to wait until they have a new ID that matches their name. If that is not an option, then they will have to forego the verification process entirely.

As this process is 100% optional and people will not be restricted access to any areas of the site for not having gone through it, I genuinely don't see the vulnerability issue. If I'm missing something, please do tell!

Edit: I understood vulnerability as a 'safety of information' type of thing. I'm assuming that it was intended more as a personal feeling of vulnerability though, sorry for misinterpreting that!

Private is good, but at the end of the day, it doesn't negate the fact that it is strangers and that people struggle to come out to their own parents and families.

I understand that there is a major weight to be verified. I understand the risks, I understand the consequences. I had to deal with this. But I want to keep my private information just that: private.

Optional or not, this seems like segregation. One has a stamp, another doesn't; should I trust that person? I think it creates more distrust than promoting it.

That's totally valid, and I know there's a lot of reasons people would decide they didn't want to share the info with ANYONE.

I can kind of see that. At the same time, we could argue that Epicness is a shameless display of wealth separating the poor from the wealthy, who flaunt their wealth through custom templates and colored user profiles. Same with art, characters with fancy art are more likely to get invited to RP than characters without an image etc..

After 7.5 years on this website, I trust the community enough to not be jerks about something as serious as an age verification badge that is meant to aid in protecting users from things like jail time as an extra safety measure. We have a pretty awesome memberbase in general and I'm willing to trust them to be nice about this and take it at face value for what it is.

I am glad this would be an option. While $10 might not seem like a big deal to some people, for people like me it is. Strapped for money all the time, it's a right pain. I mean I'd be willing to get the badge, but since things are so uncertain right now for my mom and I. Especially since we have to cut back on so much, just to be able to pay bills and get by.

That's all I shall say on this matter.

As someone who manages a massive 18+ community, I would absolutely love this feature. I personally only like to RP with legal adults.

I have concerns about how the community would respond to a system that will result in some members basicly saying, "I won't play/interact/etc with you unless you pay the site to check if you really are an adult."