Age Verification and MySpace.com

I was reading the Wall Street Journal last Friday and came across an article on myspace.com and limiting children’s access to the site (DNA Sample required to view online article.) One comment made by MySpace’s Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam states:

“there is no technology or national system that allows us or any other Internet company to truly verify the identity or age of a person online.”

Here is my opportunity to start educating the world. There is technology available that allows e-commerce companies to verify the identity and/or age of a person online.

The most pressing issue surrounding these networking sites is how to keep unsolicited adults or online predators away from our children. That is something that can easily be solved today by using an age verification solution on the adults registering to use the site. Now before anyone starts screaming about anonymity and how age verification threatens the freedom of information, there’s a way to age verify someone without restricting the flow of information on the Internet (after all that’s what Trusted Identity is all about!). Having a Trusted Identity means someone couldn’t pretend to be under 18 (or over) and gives social networks like MySpace the ability to put real controls in place to limit a user’s interaction with minors.

The real issue at stake here is to determine how we can all work together (parents, businesses, government, technology) to create a solution that protects our children online. Hopefully it won’t be long before “Trusted Identity” becomes a topic talked about outside the tech world and more in the mainstream.

– John

1-2-3 Jump!

Here we go – I’ve officially entered the professional blog world.  Our Marketing/Creative Type thought this would be a great idea for our company.  After all, everyone else is doing it. Funny… that argument never really worked when I used it on my parents back as a teenager, but I digress. It’s not that I’m not a fan of blogging or don’t see the value – I’m just concerned we won’t be able to pull off balancing our my opinions with the rules and expectations of the blogging world.  But, it’s worth a shot.  I’ll trust all of you blogging diehards to help keep me us in check if we start to lose our way.   

So what will this blog cover and what are its goals?  I will be publishing my thoughts on Identity and all the things happening that are helping to shape/define it.  I’ll cover topics related to consumer privacy, responsible use of data, creating trusted identities, Identity 2.0, technology, and my real passion – protecting our children online.

It’s my hope that this will become a valuable resource for my contacts, colleagues, customers and also my friends and family.  Mostly so they’ll stop looking at me with blank stares whenever I ramble on about identity and consumer privacy and responsible use of data and finally start to understand exactly what it is that I do.  I’ll try to publish a few entries each week but alas I slave away run a rapidly growing company so I tend to run out of hours in a day quite frequently.   And because I know she’s reading this – I will keep my Creative/Marketing Type happy by occasionally telling you what we’re up to here at IDology.  So until then, Cheers. 

– John