Self-verification: New trend?

This is not the killer-app age verification that state attorneys general are calling for on the social networks (see “Verifying online kids’ ages”). The story in the Wall Street Journal is about people verifying themselves (which teens probably won't do unless someone makes them). But as more and more people do so with the various means described in the Journal piece, the questionable characters will increasingly stand out. It's the kind of trend that, if it really kicks in, will grow fast as awareness grows, in a snowball effect, starting with dating sites and online transactions in sites like eBay. The Journal gives an example in Rob Barbour who wanted to verify his good reputation because he sells software and tech consulting on the Web. "When he put up an eBay Inc. listing a few weeks ago, the Ashburn, Va., technology consultant embedded a link to his new online profile on verification service Trufina Inc. He soon will paste the link in his emails" and his site to ensure that everyone knows he is who he says he is. "Proving who you are is increasingly important on the Web, amid growing concern that pervasive Internet fraud is making it difficult to know whom to trust," according to the Journal. So far, only adults can verify themselves, because there isn't publicly available info on minors that verification services can check against and verify, and establishing a national-level database of ID info on US children would likely be highly controversial (see my feature for more detail on this).