Age verification checkmark - Potentially Harmful for users personal safety
Comfy Chloe
There has been a
VERY
alarming change recently that Exposes users for their Verification status on the open beta.Explaination of problem:
- Once the user completes ID Verification, 18+ or <18, Their profile will now earn a Tiny checkmark next to the shield on their rank, informing other users of that users completion in ID Verification, Currently this is NOT able to be disabled
- This came almost completly unannounced, Only users within the community leaders discord (maybe others, im Unaware) were aware before it happened (Even tho we advised that this shouldn't be an option at all
- Users are still able to hide and show their badge, Now this can create a multitude of problems.
1: Accidental harassment: A Friend I've known for a week was hiding their badge, Which got me Hyper alerted to when I saw they had a checkmark, I knew they were over the age, but I saw the checkmark and I freaked out on them getting way to in their face because of my expressive concern of what their Real age was due to the checkmark
(In the open beta, Age verified is removed, Only none and 18+ are applicable options now.)
2: Age verification was released to help seperate adults from minors, Now VRChat appear to be potentially marking it as a "Safety" feature.
Problems:
This checkmark allows users to identify people who have ID Verified and expose potentially them by calling the user out for hiding their own age (badge) to hangout with younger audiences to chill or potentially worse adult faking their age for any reason of personal gain, which is
Extremely Alarming behaviour.
VRChat patch notes for the open beta:
"The Trust Shield icon on user profiles and nameplates will now show a checkmark for all users who have undergone age verification."
ALL
users are now subject to this change/checkmark.Now
I personally Do not
understand the reasons for Minors to beable to age verify at all, One thought that comes to mind are minor content creators (tiktok), The checkmark aids that, Yes that is the real xyz content creator to help users see that its not some imposter, This should NOT be marketed as the same system as Age verification for Adult/Minor seperation
My biggest conflict In asking people about this topic, Why was this change made, It doesn't make sence when the feature was released as a Offering to adults to help improve communitys and build apon a Much stronger security from minors
(Granted ID verification is not perfect, NO system is non-bypassable, errors happen).
Lots of feedback I got from asking randoms in publics and friends, is that Users Should
NOT
be allowed to hide their verification badge Regardless of status
if this checkmark were to stay for the future of VRChat, It can let anyone easily Identify someone who is either underage, or potentially hiding their age (leading to much worse).If users wish to hide their badge, I don't believe VRChat should restrict that
(my personal believe)
as it is a choice of freedom, VRChat has excelled in giving users the freedom to do and enjoy this game as they want. (Please don't change that for us, we all love you at heart)
A direct quote from Tupper also mentioning this same topic within the Community leaders discord when directly asked about this topic (quote shortened):
"The ability to control what information about you is shown to others might be considered a core value of VRChat in our "psuedonymity" value."
A large slice of the users I got feedback from would like the 18+ badge to be forcfully enabled as this isn't a "feature" this is a
SAFETY feature
which is MASSIVLY
more important then having freedom of choice, We all want safety from minors when enjoying the things we love most.My personal view:
I DO NOT Regardless of personal believe
believe ANY
user should be allowed to hide their badge to hidden or changed status, If VRChat would like to remain giving users this option
, Make the checkmark status Match that of the badge's status.Do
NOT
Split the system up as it was founded from ID Verification, Not
as a way to improve trust, If VRChat has ideas in the future to change or add more ways to verify, Do it with more push towards the community before commiting.This open beta is beta for a reason, to test features and help VRChat expand and improve, This change from the community side looks Really weird and very unexpected, With all respect of my heart and others, This change shouldn't be implemented at any cause, Maybe in the future, another open beta when ID Verification is MUCH more set in stone,
Right now this is a very alarming change and should not be finalized at any cost for the protection of minors and users alone.
If at any point during this post I repeated myself, I do apologize, I wrote this under Very heavy mental stress and hope my points have come across clear and valid wording for everyone to understand
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jan_Sanku
i also think this change sucks, but for a completely different reason, one you may disagree with.
many people, but mostly adult women and those who otherwise appear and/or express in a feminine way, _frequently_ face harassment in public instances. i see this with a friend of mine on an almost daily basis, and i've unfortunately experienced some myself. luckily, _most_ creeps won't make a move unless they think you're above 18. yes, there's the "PDF files" who don't care, but those are still a minority.
it is for this reason that i, and i'm sure many others, want to hide their 18+ badge. of course, i'd still like to have the ability to join 18+ instances if i trust those in the instance and have friends with me, so being able to verify but entirely hide that fact in all other instances (and the website/api) is incredibly useful.
as for your own reasons, setting your badge to "verified" but not "18+" does not, or _should not,_ cause anyone to think you're actually under 18. after all, it's not "verified <18", and indeed everyone should be aware of the fact that this badge is (or was) freely selectable. so it's useless as a "disguise" for PDF files, but can improve the safety of adults who are at risk of harassment.
now, the new change still allows you to hide your 18+ badge, which is good, essential even in my opinion. but if you're still shown as "verified" no matter what, people could try to force you to reveal your 18+ badge, in a similar fashion to what seemed to have happened between you and that friend of yours, OP. if your verification status is hidden entirely, that at least gives you plausible deniability, and that's enough reason for most creeps to stay away from you. (after all, many people simply can't use persona)
personally, if this "feature" remains unchanged, and assuming i'm understanding it correctly, i'd actually rather purge my verification data and lock myself out of 18+ instances rather than risk harassment in public.
Comfy Chloe
For those unaware of this checkmark change, It is in open beta, Its also within the patchnotes here: https://docs.vrchat.com/docs/vrchat-202512-openbeta
Visually ingame you can see vai being on the open beta and experiementing with a friend visuallizing the problem.