Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year • Hacker News Board

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#211

Post by Ajedi32 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

Well, the API itself seems fairly well designed from a privacy perspective. It only shares age ranges, not specific ages, and only if you allow it. The data is also fuzzed to prevent an app from determining your exact birth date, and it's all tied in to the parental control system.[1]

The problem remains though that, since the laws this feature was created to comply with put the onus on Google to verify the user's age and not on the device owner (e.g. the parents), the method they use to determine the user's age to feed into this API is terrible from both a privacy and freedom perspective: they force you to send them a copy of your government ID, and delete your account if you don't comply.[3]

[1]: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/17232873

[2]: https://developer.android.com/google/play/age-signals/unders...

[3]: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1333913

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#212

Post by RandomGerm4n » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:44 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #187

RandomGerm4n wrote: post #154

I'm fundamentally opposed to age verification because it usually leads to mandatory account creation no matter how privacy friendly the age verification process itself may be. It's already extremely annoying that, for example, on YouTube, you can no longer watch many videos without an account. Furthermore, the whole thing also reinforces monopolies. Once you've verified your age on one platform, the barrier to switch…

At glance this looks reasonable but how do you enforce that kids connection always goes through the parents control? You are just moving the verification point to another gate, it means that no anonymous connections are possible anymore to the entire Internet because we want to allow parents to control their kids. You want to use your friends Wi-Fi? Now that requires full identification so that we know that its not s…

The answer is quite simple. You just don't verify it. The point isn’t to verify the age but to set the age on the device itself. If the parents set the age on the cell phone or computer, that setting is then used as the basis. The operating systems can be configured so that only the device administrator can change the age. Systemd already has a field for storing the age, which programs can read. If the child doesn’t know the root password for the laptop, they can’t change the age. If they do manage to get around that, well, so be it. The solution doesn’t have to be perfect because it would still be an improvement over the current situation without restricting adults in any way.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#213

Post by vorpalhex » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:44 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #210

vorpalhex wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a parent issue, the same as if their kid has a secret stash of cocaine or enjoys dancing in traffic. No technical measure can fix stupid.

That's not parents issue. That's why we go after people who sell or give drugs to kids. Is a serious offense, we don't wave our hands and say its parents problem and not drugging kids is a popular policy unlike drug enforcement for adults.

Everything is a parents issue.

If you are depending on the police to keep your kid from doing drugs, you have failed as a parent. I promise you, your kid can locate drugs better than the cops can arrest low level dealers.

You as a parent need to teach your kid how to behave (mostly through things like teaching ethics and morals) not by running a safe prison until your kid is 18.

And yes, I am a parent of multiple kids.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#214

Post by 1718627440 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:44 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #205

1718627440 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the point was that the actual decision happens client side and under the control of the sysadmin (the parent). > You are just moving the verification point to another gate Yeah, the gate being the decision of legal entities of age, aka. adults. > You want to use your friends, Wi-Fi? That would still do whatever your parent decided for you. > Want to connect your can toilet to the internet? Whether the toilet can…

You're making the mistake of assuming that every kid has access to identified device and that device is under parent control. You can't make this assumption because that's not true. It might be true for some middle class helicopter parents that have iPhones and time to manage and keep it under strict control but there are non-middle class kids out there who just use whatever device they can get their hands on and the…

How many children, actually have the money to buy themself another smartphone, or get a smartphone gifted by random people? I bet that's very rare.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#215

Post by sharperguy » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #209

mrtksn wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making the mistake of assuming that every kid has access to identified device and that device is under parent control. You can't make this assumption because that's not true. It might be true for some middle class helicopter parents that have iPhones and time to manage and keep it under strict control but there are non-middle class kids out there who just use whatever device they can get their hands on and the…

That's a parent issue, the same as if their kid has a secret stash of cocaine or enjoys dancing in traffic. No technical measure can fix stupid.

No obviously we can just require that drug dealers make sure they distribute cocaine in packets that only open for adults.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#216

Post by 1718627440 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:46 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #210

vorpalhex wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a parent issue, the same as if their kid has a secret stash of cocaine or enjoys dancing in traffic. No technical measure can fix stupid.

That's not parents issue. That's why we go after people who sell or give drugs to kids. Is a serious offense, we don't wave our hands and say its parents problem and not drugging kids is a popular policy unlike drug enforcement for adults.

Yeah, but that assumes, that there are people out there, selling smartphones to children at scale. First the price for one is way to large for the financial budget of a child, and second that gets even more price-intensive, after the first one got confiscated by the parent.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#217

Post by 1718627440 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #213

mrtksn wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not parents issue. That's why we go after people who sell or give drugs to kids. Is a serious offense, we don't wave our hands and say its parents problem and not drugging kids is a popular policy unlike drug enforcement for adults.

Everything is a parents issue. If you are depending on the police to keep your kid from doing drugs, you have failed as a parent. I promise you, your kid can locate drugs better than the cops can arrest low level dealers. You as a parent need to teach your kid how to behave (mostly through things like teaching ethics and morals) not by running a safe prison until your kid is 18. And yes, I am a parent of multiple kid…

> not by running a safe prison until your kid is 18.

And in addition, such an approach, will not lead to a child magically becoming an adult all of a sudden when they turn 18.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#218

Post by mrtksn » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:51 PM UTC

1718627440 wrote: post #214

mrtksn wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making the mistake of assuming that every kid has access to identified device and that device is under parent control. You can't make this assumption because that's not true. It might be true for some middle class helicopter parents that have iPhones and time to manage and keep it under strict control but there are non-middle class kids out there who just use whatever device they can get their hands on and the…

How many children, actually have the money to buy themself another smartphone, or get a smartphone gifted by random people? I bet that's very rare.

In real life, it doesn't work like this for most people. In real life, kids want something and either the parents agree to buy that and then they no longer bother with that device or the kid saves its money trades something and get that device.

The idea that a kid gets an expensive device that can't buy by itself and the parents have control or what device the kid gets is a very middle-class assumption. Life isn't that perfect for most people.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#219

Post by Ajedi32 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

K0nserv wrote: post #24

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #16

I find myself stuck on the fence with age checks. Companies have show that they are incapable or unwilling to address the problems they cause. And market forces are not working to correct things. It’s also pretty obvious that saying “parent should take responsibility” is also not working. Just observe the world around you to know it’s a non starter. This is where regulation is supposed to come in. At the same time, c…

I don't want the market solving this. If we are going to do age checks it should be based on public key cryptography, be open source, and handled by the government. You verify with the government (or don't since they already know your age), you get some form of cryptographic attestation, present said attestation to websites/apps. I'm not a fan of age verification in the first place, but I am extremely not a fan of ra…

You're seriously proposing letting governments decide which of their citizens are allowed unrestricted access to the internet?

Of all the 3rd parties who could be responsible for this, I trust the government the least.

But really the best solution here is no third party. The device owner (e.g. parents) should be responsible for setting the user's age when setting up the device. Anything that tries to take that responsibility away from parents and give it to a third party is necessarily going to be highly authoritarian; putting that third party in the role of parent for everyone, adults included.

Re: Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year

#220

Post by mrtksn » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

1718627440 wrote: post #216

mrtksn wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not parents issue. That's why we go after people who sell or give drugs to kids. Is a serious offense, we don't wave our hands and say its parents problem and not drugging kids is a popular policy unlike drug enforcement for adults.

Yeah, but that assumes, that there are people out there, selling smartphones to children at scale. First the price for one is way to large for the financial budget of a child, and second that gets even more price-intensive, after the first one got confiscated by the parent.

There are literally people out there selling smartphones to children at scale. A smartphone these days can be bought for as cheap as a burger because 2nd hand market exist and its not limited to iPhones.