Just as I try to watch an episode from the recently launched Fark TV, the site stopped me and told me I have to be over 18 to do so and asked me for my birthdate. Ok, no biggie, entered some fake date (gotta be careful of identity theft these days) and I got to the content.
Obviously, it’s basically legalese to protect their own ass, an 11 year old can calculate a date that would make him/her 18. But then I had a A-ha idea. What if you surprise them after the first form, and ask them to enter that birthdate again? Someone faking the date would just choose one randomly and not remember it when asked again. If they put something different the second time, ban their IP and prevent them from accessing the content.
Kinda clever, huh? Of course, it’s still easy to circumvent. Hitting the back button on some browsers gets you to the previous page with the date you enter still being there. Some people might still remember the date they put in the first time, they definitely would when they realize what’s going on. I’d say it would block 0.01% of all access attempts. Perhaps even higher, because it would catch out legitimate adults who put in fake dates and don’t know how to circumvent it. And in the end, the content provider would prefer that more people have access to the content, instead of less, anyway, not caring if they’re underage or not.
An idea not worth implementing…
