The UK government's new online safety act has gone too far. My mate is 26 and has an xbox. To get an invite and play with friends online he has to provide his ID. Yet he can still make purchases of games and play current over 18 games and use his xbox. With the information Microsoft has about you, it doesn't take an investigator to tell if your over the age of 18. But why would you need that anyway to send an party invite?
There's no vpn type option for xbox? I dunno if it was before or after brexit, but my first real shock of how pedantically intrusive the gov't is was limiting the size of vape atomizer reservoirs. "Something something gotta protect the children!!".
But over here? Heck, I won't even provide my id when cops ask for it
Unless there's some law where I must provide it or get arrested, it's "I don't recall where it is ossifur!".
Generally they already know who I am thanks to a crazy neighbor (or to be more accurate, a stalker), but they ALWAYS ask....why? To run a fishing expedition for warrants, etc & try to get you jammed up via the "How's your night going?" or "Oh I love that band!" conversation (interrogation) starters.
How little does your id TRULY matter?
Quick story from 20+ years ago.....
My landlord was murdered by her bf & since I "looked like him" (I didn't & was half his age), 6 or so detectives yank me from my apartment as I open my door, refuse to let me grab my insulin & I'm crammed between them in the back of a crown vic, cuffed.
Not double locked either, so with the slightest bump, cuffs get tighter rather than stay in the set position.
Into the detective bureau, they handcuff me to a desk in a way that I couldn't sit & took my belt/laces so my pants were basically around my knees most of the hour I was there.
No one asked for my name, no one asked for my id or took prints. Heck, they wouldn't even answer questions when I started throwing stuff from the desk & shouting obscenities.
The guy who did it had given a full confession approximately 14hrs prior & was in county (where he died), so there was no need for me to even be hauled & be treated like I was being charged with first degree murder as he was.
Released with no explanation "Watch the f out G.G. Allin1776, we'll be watching you like a hawk, we know you were involved & you'll be going away for murder!".
They knew exactly who I was despite no-one in the building knowing me (aside from the dead landlord), no id, no criminal record, etc & still they're reading off my D.O.B. like they know me.
Had to throw a fit just to get a ride home via the paddy wagon.
Yup, they harassed me constantly after that. All because I rented a dumpy apartment. Oddly enough, no one else was hauled in or harassed.
Moral of the story? Even at the turn of the century id wasn't necessary. Cops/gov't & big corps know more about you than you do.
