121–130 of 137 posts
illogical hubris - no state can regulate the internet; no state can compel developers to write code. the court cases on this will be interesting
It's like a product safety law. No state can compel you to put a pressure relief valve on your boilers. But they can stop you selling boilers without pressure relief valves. They can also prosecute you if your boiler explodes and kills people.
illogical hubris - no state can regulate the internet; no state can compel developers to write code. the court cases on this will be interesting
I assume you've heard of New Mexico's DoJ winning a not-quite-$1B court case against Meta. Maybe Meta's lawyers will win on appeal, maybe they won't. "Think of the children!" pushes a lot of emotional buttons. But Mr. Zuck most certainly can decide that he doesn't like the legal bills and uncertainty, and order his developers to write code.
The breathless fearmongering over an age field on account set up is just completely over-the-top. This is probably the least bad out of all possible ways to implement age checking. The benefit of this is that it can short-circuit support for more onerous age verification. The writing has been on the wall for some time now: the era of completely unrestricted internet is coming to an end. The question is how awful will…
https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/pornography-age-ve...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's like a product safety law. No state can compel you to put a pressure relief valve on your boilers. But they can stop you selling boilers without pressure relief valves. They can also prosecute you if your boiler explodes and kills people.
But it’s not a product safety law and it’s not confined to a single state
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> for their ad platforms gives better data > No, they all support harvesting your data so they can continue doing what they do best: building shadow profiles and targeting ads. I think we are agreeing adamantly here?
You said that Meta doesn't want to be responsible for age verification - they absolutely do, because that gives them every single user's identity. Forcing it at the OS level is not an attempt to put the responsibility on the OS, it's an attempt to drive a wedge into the OS where Apple can't hide users' identities.
No, they really, really do not!
In their own words:
> There is a practical framework that directly answers the complex logistical challenges I’ve laid out: centralizing age verification and parental approval at the app store level. App stores are already the gateway through which teens access every app on their phones. And we don’t have to start from scratch. Apple and Google already collect age information when a parent sets up their teen’s phone, and they already have systems in place to obtain parental approval before teens can make purchases. We’re simply asking that this same mechanism be extended to all app downloads. By verifying a person’s age just once at this device level, the phone itself acts as a single, secure checkpoint.
https://about.fb.com/news/2026/06/how-to-verify-age-online/
Or:
> Meta has been lobbying the federal government for new rules to implement age verification at the app store level — which would put the burden on companies like Apple and Google, not individual platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/25/news/meta-lobbyi...
Or:
> Now they [ed: Meta] want Apple and Google to build similar systems that every app can access, turning age verification into persistent device fingerprinting.... The proposed laws hammer Apple's App Store and Google Play with compliance requirements but reportedly spare social media platforms
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reddit-user-uncovers-beh...
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But it’s not a product safety law and it’s not confined to a single state
Wrong on both counts.
[1] https://linuxstans.com/illinois-hb5511-operating-system-age-...
It's time to create a library: `lib-deny-age-verifiers'. Start putting it into every open-source package. Modify the license to prohibit removing this library from the package.
Okay, so the OS in my own computer is responsible for reporting my age. Okay, okay...
And some states are going to pass laws that advertisements can't be shown to minors. Seems good.
I think I'm about to become a bit of a minor myself, at least when I'm using certain sites...
Background: Meta/Facebook, Google and Apple all support age verification. It gives them legal cover and for their ad platforms gives better data. But Meta/FB have been strongly lobbying to make it required at the OS level, so they aren't responsible for it, whereas Google and Apple both want it to be an application responsibility. I think the CA version of this ended up with a carve-out for open source? I can't recal…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> for their ad platforms gives better data > No, they all support harvesting your data so they can continue doing what they do best: building shadow profiles and targeting ads. I think we are agreeing adamantly here?
You said that Meta doesn't want to be responsible for age verification - they absolutely do, because that gives them every single user's identity. Forcing it at the OS level is not an attempt to put the responsibility on the OS, it's an attempt to drive a wedge into the OS where Apple can't hide users' identities.