Vine’s New Age Restriction Notice Ignores The Fact That Liars Can Also Click “OK”

Of COURSE I’m 17, Vine!

As we noted before, Twitter’s new Vine app has a little bit of a porn problem. As in, it’s all too easy to find six-second pornographic videos, despite the company’s best efforts to make that content hard to find. The service got in some hot water a few days after it launched, when a hardcore porn video popped up on users’ home feeds, and since then it’s been scrambling to assure the public it’s clean, honest.

So what kind of roadblock has Vine thrown up to prevent anyone underage from seeing naughty stuff? Actually, it’s kind of a weak one. Users who download the video app for Apple devices now see a warning that it “contains age-restricted material.” All you’ve got to do is click “OK” and you’re in.

That’s cold comfort to parents, as kids are quite capable of lying about their age to a prompt. Kind of like entering your birthdate to enter an alcohol brand’s site — just plug in any date that makes you 21. Easy peasy.

If Vine wants to keep dirt off its nose and porn out of its content, it’ll likely have to find a better solution to blocking dirty movies, or at the very least, a bit tougher of gatekeeping system.