Plagued VRChat - WAOW, it's the METAVERSE!!! (a growing den of pedophiles, furries, and troons that is advertised as safe for children)

[Niggergante]

The devs released an update yesterday that publicly adds something I feel should have been in the game a long time ago: age verification. Unfortunately, they messed it up by putting the feature behind a paywall.
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TL;DR: They use Persona, a well-known verification service, where you must provide your ID and a couple of selfies to prove your identity. Persona has safeguards in place to prevent something like a kid stealing their parent's ID. Once verified, you gain access to a new instance privacy toggle in-game called "Verified Only." If your account isn't verified, you won't be able to join those instances.

I reached out to a friend who's really into VRChat, and he said he was able to get verified in less than 10 minutes, so it seems very easy and painless.

In theory, this is a great idea for a game already infamous for minors running around unsupervised. The problem is that the verification process is locked behind the VRChat+ subscription, meaning you have to pay to access the feature. The FAQ in the article suggests that you retain your verification status even if your subscription expires, so theoretically, you could pay for a month, verify yourself, and then unsubscribe. But for a game already overrun with shady stuff happening to minors, paywalling this feature seems like a really bad idea.

Ya know, I saw the update block on steam and couldn't get past the faggy voice, so I'm glad to know they're still fucking up.

 

[Pizdec]

I went on the persona website to see how much it costs. Their starting price for, presumably someone just starting a buisiness and needing to set up identity verification is $250/month, with a contract lease of at least a year, so $3,000. All the other tiers are "let's talk" in regards to pricing it out. I get this shit isn't cheap, but if you got Facebook money pouring in then it shouldn't be a premium to set up something this basic.

 

[Inco G. Nito]

They were THIS freaking close to fixing the problem and they had to let their greed get the better of them. This is downright Roblox moderation levels of Akham's Razor going on.

If they wanted to fix the problem, they would. The issue is that this "problem" is their entire userbase. They kill off the child exploitation, VRChat dies. Simple as. They added the feature so they could say they care but locked it behind a paywall so it doesn't actually get used.

 

[Tiggletown]

View attachment 6920429
I went on the persona website to see how much it costs. Their starting price for, presumably someone just starting a buisiness and needing to set up identity verification is $250/month, with a contract lease of at least a year, so $3,000. All the other tiers are "let's talk" in regards to pricing it out. I get this shit isn't cheap, but if you got Facebook money pouring in then it shouldn't be a premium to set up something this basic.

I thought of this idea years ago a third party repository that verifies your age or gender or what ever then sources/confirms that information on demand of the user.

Guess I should of ran with it.

 

[Vect]

$250/month

What fucking minor has $250 a month to spend on age verification?? I guess that's the point, bankrupt them out of being preyed on by pedos.

They kill off the child exploitation, VRChat dies. Simple as.

Explain how. Predators go where children are. Same with Discord and Roblox.

 

[ye's Official KF Burner]

Did any of you niggers read "Early Access" or was it just me

Goofy to early access it at all but it looks like it will be rolled out to all users.

 

[Markass the Worst]

What fucking minor has $250 a month to spend on age verification?? I guess that's the point, bankrupt them out of being preyed on by pedos.

This is the cost to VRChat for using Persona, not the cost that VRChat charges to its users for age verification.

In that respect, $250 a month (granted it could be higher) is cheap for preventing child exploitation, and VRC should just eat the cost if they actually care about children. Of course, we know they don't.

 

[Autistic Integrity]

What fucking minor has $250 a month to spend on age verification?? I guess that's the point, bankrupt them out of being preyed on by pedos.

i think thats what devs have to pay to implement the verification in their product.

edit-beat by seconds by Markass the Worst

Its cheap as fuck and shouldn't affect their bottom line, unless having all the child predators quit puts a hurting on them.

 

[Vect]

In that respect, $250 a month (granted it could be higher) is cheap for preventing child exploitation, and VRC should just eat the cost if they actually care about children. Of course, we know they don't.

Oh, I see. Then what's the standard subscription fee? The post mentioned that this service was paywalled.

 

[Markass the Worst]

Oh, I see. Then what's the standard subscription fee? The post mentioned that this service was paywalled.

It's included with a VRChat+ subscription. VRC+ is $10 a month.

 

[Pinball 2000]

Oh, I see. Then what's the standard subscription fee? The post mentioned that this service was paywalled.

vrchat has an optional subscription service called VRC+ that costs about $10/month. It mostly grants you access to some cosmetic things like being able to put an icon next to your username and having 300 slots for favoriting avatars for quick access (non-vrc users only get 25)

The verification feature is currently locked behind a VRC+ subscription, meaning you have to subscribe for at least a month if you want to verify your account.

 

[Endangered Species List]

The devs released an update yesterday that The problem is that the verification process is locked behind the VRChat+ subscription,

Weird, I was going to comment on this then noticed how it says “Early Access with VRC+” which I’m assuming means if everything works out it will become available to all players even without a subscription? I looked through the article though but couldn’t find anything else mentioning the Early Access part though or plans for a future, player-wide release.
And then the VRC+ subscription info page itself also doesn’t clarify that it’s just for Early Access.

Spoiler

I feel like it should be fairly obvious that putting a long-awaited and in-demand feature behind a paywall would go over like a fart in church, so you’d think they’d try and emphasize more that it’s only limited to VRC+ for now.

 

[Lvkester Endorser]

If you guys could stop being retarded doomers for one second you would notice it says "early access", meaning they let the paid users beta-test it before they roll it out to free users as well.

 

[Schpoots]

VRchat was so fun and wholesome in the early days. I hate all these porn addicted retards for corrupting it.

 

[Kaspersky]

I thought of this idea years ago a third party repository that verifies your age or gender or what ever then sources/confirms that information on demand of the user.

Guess I should of ran with it.

Idea is nothing - execution is what matters.

 

[Inco G. Nito]

Explain how.

Okay just because you deliberately cut off a community's food supply and the starvation killed them, doesn't mean that taking away their food was entirely unrelated to "killing them off".

 

[ForTheHoard]

Every time I see VR chat news, I'm reminded that SonicFox spends most of his time immersed in it. He's also a very prolific gay furry.

 

[OtherLastTrainHome]

View attachment 6920429
I went on the persona website to see how much it costs. Their starting price for, presumably someone just starting a buisiness and needing to set up identity verification is $250/month, with a contract lease of at least a year, so $3,000. All the other tiers are "let's talk" in regards to pricing it out. I get this shit isn't cheap, but if you got Facebook money pouring in then it shouldn't be a premium to set up something this basic.

this isn't what it seems at first glance.

it's worse.

it's not $250/mo. it's actually $250/mo with 500 "free" verifications and then $1.50 per verification afterwards. all of the age verification services you can look up are doing exactly this kind of bullshit. Persona aside, age verification costs are in the range of .80 cents to $2 per verification attempt. for every single account being verified on a massive platform, $1 per user is an astronomical financial consideration. the fees are a bit bullshit but there are regulations in play that come with their own costs which is how services like Persona justify the cost-per-user.

this does NOT excuse the total lack of security up until now, but it should put into perspective what a shitshow the security is all on its own. there are more technical answers to give on what data verification works with, but i'm not privy to that and don't know anything beyond what i've mentioned here.

 

[Imagine Reading This LOL]

The devs released an update yesterday that publicly adds something I feel should have been in the game a long time ago: age verification. Unfortunately, they messed it up by putting the feature behind a paywall.
View attachment 6920164
(article)(archive)

TL;DR: They use Persona, a well-known verification service, where you must provide your ID and a couple of selfies to prove your identity. Persona has safeguards in place to prevent something like a kid stealing their parent's ID. Once verified, you gain access to a new instance privacy toggle in-game called "Verified Only." If your account isn't verified, you won't be able to join those instances.

I reached out to a friend who's really into VRChat, and he said he was able to get verified in less than 10 minutes, so it seems very easy and painless.

In theory, this is a great idea for a game already infamous for minors running around unsupervised. The problem is that the verification process is locked behind the VRChat+ subscription, meaning you have to pay to access the feature. The FAQ in the article suggests that you retain your verification status even if your subscription expires, so theoretically, you could pay for a month, verify yourself, and then unsubscribe. But for a game already overrun with shady stuff happening to minors, paywalling this feature seems like a really bad idea.

Likely a staged rollout rather than it being behind a paywall forever. Note the phrasing "Early Access with VRC+"

They initially released this feature to a few select invite only beta-testing groups where several non VRC+ members were able to get age verified, now its being rolled out for VRC+ and soon it will be general availability.

This would not be unprecedented of VRChat, they did the same thing with their Android client and are doing the same with their iOS client. First they release it to a closed select group of early adopters, then to VRC+ subscribers and then general availability. This tracks with their typical test -> release pattern.

Their previous media on the topic makes it seem like they intended for it to be available for everyone eventually. Plus people on Reddit (gross) are reporting that non VRC+ users who got verified under the initial verification program are keeping their verification. Seems like a weird thing to do if they were intending to make money with this.

 

[nyblanc]

Their previous media on the topic makes it seem like they intended for it to be available for everyone eventually. Plus people on Reddit (gross) are reporting that non VRC+ users who got verified under the initial verification program are keeping their verification. Seems like a weird thing to do if they were intending to make money with this.

Still strange to A/B test with paid users rather than making it purely random or opt-in.
Could also be an easy vector of "we're working on it, it's in early access!" to curb any controversy - when they have very little intention (or priority for) actually implementing it globally.