And do you have something you'd like to say about the plans for a UK National Identity Scheme?
Of course you are, and of course you do. In that case, step this way... the MyLifeMyId site is aimed at you. The site is a Home Office-sponsored online initiative to gather the opinions of 16-25-year-olds as input to the ID Cards strategy.
You may remember that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asserted that, as young people have to prove their identity more frequently than anyone else, they are natural candidates for early enrolment into such a scheme.
In doing so, she joined a group including Katherine Courtney and Meg Hillier (Minister responsible for the scheme) in perpetuating a piece of disinformation which really ought to have been eradicated by now from any policy statements on the National Identity Scheme (NIS). Young people are not required to prove their identity much more often than anyone else - they are more frequently required to provide proof of age. (Once that distinction has sunk in, perhaps we could move on to the distinction between telling someone your date of birth, and proving to them that you are over 18... but let's take things steadily).
The registration process for the MyLifeMyId site seems similarly confused. I went through the process just to see what it involved in terms of verification (and disclosure of personal details), but did not complete it, as that would be naughty. I am, after all, outside the target demographic for the exercise. At one point I was asked to indicate the extent to which I agreed/disagreed with the plans for the scheme: this is during the registration process, mind you, not the debate. Underneath the range of answers, in a strangely minute font which I have done my best to reproduce, was the following message:
(Note, your answer will not influence who takes part in the research. We just want to check we have a range of people with different views.)
Hmm. Won't that beceme obvious later on, when the contributor starts to give their opinions?
Actually, according to The Register and a few blogs I've read like this one, the site apparently quickly attracted anti-ID card contributors who took advantage of the discussion fora to denounce it as a shallow propaganda exercise. I understand the site had to be re-started with a number of the early posts 'excised'. Perhaps the moral is as Thurber put it in his updated version of Little Red Riding Hood: "It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be."
One would hope so. The last thing we want is social networking sites, aimed at the younger age-groups, which create the impression of an age-bounded user group while actually taking no steps to ensure that the older and potentially ill-intentioned user is filtered out.
![[RSS Newsfeed]](/themes/sotto/images/valid-rss.png)
![[This is a Roller site]](/themes/sotto/images/roller-logo.gif){kind=logo}
Hilarious isn't it ?
If the Gov. really wanted to 'get down with the kids' it'd connect to them via Facebook (or MySpace or Bebo), as I suggested to Ian.
I must admit I haven't signed up to MyLifeMyID, because although I tried, it bounced my application due to my age (just like you I was lulled into a false sense of security by the friendly, and rather ageist, message). Rather than be surreptitious and lie I thought I'd simply read what news came out of the debacle.
I wonder if the age limitation contraviens EU law on Ageism ? That'd be quite ironic wouldn't it.
Have you seen that Plaxo have been bought out and that there are reports of them opening up there users online address books to the new owners, ComCast ?
http://blogs.sun.com/eclectic/entry/plaxo_condescending_insulting_email_advert
Posted by Wayne Horkan on July 18, 2008 at 02:26 PM GMT+00:00 #