Vrchat Age Verification

General Discussion
1

I seriously believe that vrc should have some form of age verification even just a simple one like just asking for a birthday as i know this wouldn’t be enough to prevent underaged people from getting onto the platform its at least better than none at all and could help keep some kids at bay and help parents from their kids getting onto it as seeing a age verification promt would warn them that their kid probably shouldn’t be on said game especially with vrchat coming to mobile its something soo simple and harmless to add. However id verification would be better especially if its asks for an image of you while also asking for your id then a child cant just use their parents and yeah i wouldn’t trust vrc devs with that kind of information but an ai could scan an image and an id to confirm then delete the images making it to where devs can’t see the information other than a check mark or X on the verification plus a hacker can’t get any information if there is none to begin with and age verification is a one time thing so there would be no need to keep a hold of that information.

IDK just an idea and suggestion its better than none as we all know kids can be annoying and it does break tos to just let them roam around freely.

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2

I do mention an ai but there are other methods like a 3rd party or some other thing for an id verification.

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The main issue with age and Id verification is to be accepted legally by all the countries where your product is sold.

Especially in Europe with GDPR, there is strict rules about personal data, and there is no better personal information than an ID.

There is companies addressing that issue, but that’s a real legal pain to handle anyway.

So even tho I agree that would be good for the platform, I know it can be hard to do.

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Current system:

"How this system impacts users will largely depend on their age – determined by what birthday they used when registering their account. If they are under 18, Content Gating for all labels will be turned on and cannot be turned off.

For users over 18, Content Gating will be off by default. However, if you’d prefer not to see certain types of content, you can toggle each label on or off individually.

Avatars that are blocked by Content Gating will be replaced with the default VRChat robot. Likewise, worlds that are blocked by Content Gating will be hidden from search and menus, and you will not be able to enter them.

If someone invites you to a world that is blocked by your Content Gating settings, you’ll receive a notice, and will be unable to join their instance."

" Applying these labels doesn’t permit you to break any rules, and none of our rules have changed.
The rules are the same, but now you can warn people that your world contains things closer to the line than usual.

Accurately labeling your uploads with appropriate Content Warnings is important. If you’ve used the old labels, we’ve migrated those over. If you didn’t label that older content, that’s okay, you’ve got some time. However, if you upload new content and consistently fail to label it appropriately, you may be subject to moderation action."

Esentially:
If you have an avatar you feel is not for under 18 in turms of beeing sugestive, reupload them with lable, and if you see an avatar you believe should have a lable, report it I guess and then maybe the user will learn something.
I was personally told by people who taught me to create avatars, to never check anything cause they would ban my account for doing so, then I stopped even reading the upload window gradualy so I like this new way and will revise all my avatars with correct labels later today.

What VRC need extend this to
Option on website or in settings in vrc:
Click option / tickbox - “Don’t show people under 18” and you will get a text in the floating status where your name is, saying: “Adult”

Meaning: so if you are in a public instance, you are alerting people you cant see users that is not adult so even if you and your friends are chilling at a mirror, there wont be any confusion to why you are or someone is standing inside of your having their own seperate conversation since you cant see eachother.

Will it take away the option for underage people to have adult accounts?
Obviously no, but if they add that if we sending in a reports to vrc they investigate those accounts and ban them after monitoring them it would be great. Altho even if a mod stealtly watch somone and bans them, sending in your ID to appeal it should be enough.

And regarding VRC comming to mobile phones:
Parents needs to stop creating and setting their accounts on google and apple to be adults or over X age for their kids to download tiktok or other popular apps, since vrchat will most likley have a age limitation seeing you need a account to access vrc platform, the legal age to have an online account without having a guardian creating one is 13.
That’s a parental issue, not VRC’s issue. but vrchat can improve on how we as adults can select whom we wish to interact with.
Best example is:
Other games like wow / rift / mmorpgs even shooters like CS have been a way for parents whom are divorced or simply away for from their kids to play with them and spend time with them.
Last year I encountered a user who was underage that told me they spend a large part in vrc with their sick dad before he passed away in vrchat to experience worlds together and not just meet by the bedside. And that is what world of warcraft did before with people as well, they taken people in wheelchairs on epic adventures, beautiful scenery and just funny relaxing moments even finding people getting married and we all know finding someone special or amazing friends in vrc and share and experince beautiful worlds or just watch movies with is everywhere.
So making this only 18+ would be kinda hurt a part of the userbase and the fundamentals of what social platforms in can be and contribute in society as more and more are getting introduced for it seeing vrchat is prettymuch the bigger stable player in this space and also for the fact vrchat is not explicit adult game with sexual orgin just like wow is not that either.
But having the option for any adult individual user to filter out people they feel they likley have nothing incommon with and not interested in hearing about teen drama would be great I personally feel and would be very usefull and appreciated by majority of the community as we do not need to interact with eachother, we do not go on raids with bosses where we need users with high level gear here, we usally just socialise with one an another, so it would only make sence to extend the filter options.

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Just looking at your long reply, I’m having trouble seeing where you’re copying the VRChat post, and what you’re saying.

I’d like to be able to skim/skip the parts on that age gating article.

Unless of course that is just all in the article. But I didn’t notice them discussing World of Warcraft

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Here, hope this help if i write it this way intead.
Read their news:

“Starting with VRChat 2023.3.3, creators must appropriately label their content via the VRChat SDK or the website. In a release soon after, players will be able to filter the content they see in VRChat based on those labels. If a player is under 18, the content filter is enabled and cannot be turned off.”

That means there will be a way to set what age your account is prabably more clear at VRCchat’s end since that is well how the system is built buy knowing a users set age.

prevent underaged people from getting onto the platform its at least better than none at all and could help keep some kids at bay and help parents from their kids getting onto it

But…
The platform is built to cater for people 13+, by knowing that it does not make sense to have warnings to try scare away their target user base from using the platform just because they are under 18.
Your looking at this form the wrong angle I believe honestly reading you state “prevent underaged people from getting onto the platform”

There is no fundamental logic in that more then everyone knows content creators can create more then what we might wanna see sometimes, therefor the new label system is probably being enforced, lets asume that without being rocket scientists ok.

So if it gets on the appstore/play store means only people with a google or apple account with right age set can actually download it for starters, that is your main age check.
And its parents resposebility to acctually be parents and set their kids accounts correctly so they cant download above rated content.
Then on second hand vrc is enforcing the people to set their custom content that are sugestive as suggestive so people under 18 cant view it also ability for us to report users who dont st it correctly.
But the reason why a promt also would not logically make sence is because someone who got an acocunt listed under 13 on a ios/android would not be able to download the game to start with and those who can, since their parents are lazy and set their kids ages to 16 or 18 making their accounts of legal age to access the content will do download and enter without parents getting a notification as well.
If someone is 13 or over and download a free game on a mobile, no parents are going to get a notification saying “oh no, your underage kid is starting up vrchat, here is a link for more information…” lets be perfectly clear on that, so its simply a fundamentally flawed idea.

If above is done correctly then filters and hopfully a more extended filter option for people who only wish to see/interact with people 18+ works.
And if a kid are listed as adults that are under 18 can get reported for an id check it would be good. <------ See that is what is missing, so people who dont wanna be in contact with underaged people at all does not need to.

The reason why ID checks are hard to implement online for starters are that every country more of less uses their own ID verfication for online services and versions of social security numbers etc.
So it relays on pretty much entering bank card information and then agreeing in a spesific local banking realted app.
Introducing but not enforcing a non-fee option to do that in order to mark accounts as adults, would be lovley. to set our account to be legal age in order to only interact with eachoter.
(not everyone wish to enter bank card info online, some just wanna play for free and some kids does steal/"borrow parents banking infomation and use online.)

Enforcing tho that practise so only people who can enter a bank card and verfy their age as adults to shut out people under 18 = That is not going to happen as the current target demographic audience is everyone 13+ by the looks of things, else they would have listed their game for 18 already and not the legal ago to create an online account without parental supervision.

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When I mention kid i mean someone under 13 who shouldn’t even be on the platform in the first place as it breaks tos and i get parents wont get a notice that their child is on a platform that they should or shouldn’t be on but if a parent sees something akin to age verification on the platform it can act as a kind of warning as no parent is looking at the tos for vrc which explicitly says 13+. I believe locking out the children that are under 13 is important as it will not only show that the vrc team takes their tos seriously but there are far too many children on the platform to begin with and mobile will make it more accessible for those same children possibly even younger and yeah that is up to the parents to control what they are allowed to download but some don’t care and thats where age verification can help having a content filter is nice and great even its a step that i can get behind for sure but these children under 13 need to go as this is a platform for teenagers not children im here to have conversations and chat not act as daycare for children.

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So because I am two years away from 18, I’m not allowed to wear the avatars that I love as a horror artist, not even mentioning about avatars labled incorrectly, because nobody knew what these lables would eventually cause? There can never be an age in which this will work out, because people mature at different times, and this feels like such a low blow, because I know my message can’t do jack… do they not even think of the people that don’t have the ability to play when over 18?

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9

So does that mean I can be who I am when I’m just a year away from 18? Like the other person said that is 2 years away, people mature at different times and that should be taken into account along with the overall context of the content, people now once they get to highschool already see this stuff (gore, sexual content and more) because either that is the culture or that was what they themself found on their own. I know plenty of people that started to go into the adult side of things by 15-16, that is just how the world works, and having everything locked away when you know full well that you are allowed to see that sort of content (there is a such thing as being rated M17+) there are things that doing work with how people act nowadays (and the age limit of only 18+ should be accompanied by one for 16+ or 17+, a slightly less restricted age gating with full adult content, not adult language and themes, that is an everyday even if the content is restricted, but nudity and extreme gore is blocked, that would be a way to ease it without it being totally anger inducing. There are ways to implement an age gating system and this is not it due to the already established environment of vrchat as whole.

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