The Blizzard of ids
or: ID, ergo id. Super
A note to those of you who use our catch-up recordings
ID, in the sense of one’s identification, is currently even more controversial than usual in the UK.
One’s name is precious and should be protected (and not only for the most obvious reasons of avoiding a horrible scam or a general squeamishiness about Big Tech knowing our every move, purchase, and thought). So we have rightly trained ourselves to be protective of our ID, to reduce the risk of those with nefarious intentions being nefarious.
Sometimes, however, identification can yield a happier outcome - perhaps leading to new theories about society, specific historical figures, or major masterpieces (see right for three recent examples).
But whether we personally see it as for good or ill, we are asked ever more frequently to share our ID. And you may, I’m afraid, be asked for a form of ID by Vimeo (i.e. our video hosting platform) to access our catch-up recordings at some point. But then again you may not!
Allow me to explain…
It's a result of the Online Safety Act (2023), which is being rolled out across all social media and internet platforms. Essentially, age verification will be required in all places where vulnerable minors might otherwise access harmful or inappropriate content (see here for a quick explainer). The ID required in the UK is a selfie from which one’s age can be estimated, government ID, or credit card verification. For further details and explanation, see Vimeo’s guide here.
According to Vimeo's guidelines, I can see no reason for anyone accessing our videos to be affected by the measures - unsurprisingly, none of our content is uploaded with an adult/mature content marker (!), and none is unrated.
Nevertheless, I’m aware of three Denizens of Wright History so far who have been asked to supply age verification. Having discussed this them and with others who’ve not yet been asked, I know that some of you will not provide ID, and some of you will not necessarily be happy about it, but are resigned to the increasing number of occasions for which we now have to do such things.
There’s a good chance, we know, that for those of you who are in the former camp, this may mean that you do not want to register for a course unless you know that you will be able to attend all sessions at point of broadcast. We sincerely hope, of course, that this will be a non-problem, but we couldn’t release a new programme of courses without making you at least aware of the possibility beforehand.
We shall, of course, be recording and uploading all online sessions as usual. And should you reach a sticking point once a course has started, we will naturally do whatever we can to make things right. Please just let us know and we can take it from there.
Having communicated with Vimeo’s excellent Tech Support team, and seen the communications kindly shared with me by one of our verification pioneers ( ! ), I think we should be OK, but I cannot guarantee that you won’t be asked.
I can, however, guarantee that none of our material on Vimeo contains adult content, and everything is rated ‘All Audiences’ - i.e. Officially Not Nefarious or Naughty!
Finally, I hope you’ll forgive the allusion to The Wizard of Oz, which only works if one pronounces ID as Id (i.e. rhyming with ‘lid’.). But it was too apposite to ignore….
Just as the Yellow Brick Road represents a journey towards a desired outcome, so, arguably, does a request for ID in order to access a catch-up recording. That’s not quite a brain, a heart, courage, or home, it’s true, but it’s nevertheless a desirable thing - hence my homage to the interplay between id, ego, and super-ego: I want, therefore I am.
And we very much hope that you will still want to join us during our new programme - whether ‘live’ or on catch-up.