Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet? • Hacker News Board

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#341

Post by fsflover » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

dd8601fn wrote: post #117

tmpz22 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your data on all those platforms - Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are ALL building comprehensive profiles on you, selling your data, and probably tossing it straight to the government in one way or another.

“In one way or another” is doing a huge amount of work in that sentence. The spectrum of privacy postures there is massive.

Indeed:

Google collects 20 times more telemetry from Android devices than Apple from iOS (therecord.media) [but Apple still collects a lot!]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26639261

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#342

Post by ike2792 » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #336

bluegatty wrote: post #333

It's absolutely a slippery slope - but most parents know how this is a very real thing as well. There's no controversy in having drugs, guns, alcohol, porn and other things 'behind the counter' - the intellectual debate over freedom of information is clouded by ideology. Definitely the 'slippery slope' debate is worth having, but that's way more relevant than the 'should 10-year-olds be able to do whatever' (aka all…

The point is there are much better ways to enforce this - like just setting up proper parental controls on a device. Kids can’t buy their own phone. So parents can always enforce stuff at a hardware level if they set it up properly. It would be much better to just mandate that phones set up with a kid profile cannot access social media.

Many parents don’t have the technical aptitude to set the controls up properly. I am a software engineer and I find it challenging to keep up with the nuances of parental control setup and how to adjust it as kids get older. Content is also imperfectly tagged and smart kids can easily find loopholes in most controls. Having a centralized ID validation system wouldn’t be an ideal solution but having something baked into the Internet itself to help parents shield their kids from inappropriate would be a good thing.

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#343

Post by anthonypasq » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:05 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #336

bluegatty wrote: post #333

It's absolutely a slippery slope - but most parents know how this is a very real thing as well. There's no controversy in having drugs, guns, alcohol, porn and other things 'behind the counter' - the intellectual debate over freedom of information is clouded by ideology. Definitely the 'slippery slope' debate is worth having, but that's way more relevant than the 'should 10-year-olds be able to do whatever' (aka all…

The point is there are much better ways to enforce this - like just setting up proper parental controls on a device. Kids can’t buy their own phone. So parents can always enforce stuff at a hardware level if they set it up properly. It would be much better to just mandate that phones set up with a kid profile cannot access social media.

This is not how any other thing that is banned for children is enforced. It makes no sense.

The person selling the age gated item needs to take lawful measures to ensure they arent selling it to a minor. Their parents have nothing to do with it.

Your solution would be that if a 14 year old walks into a liquor store and doesnt have a note from their parents saying that they arent allowed to drink alcohol, then the store should be able to sell it to them.

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#344

Post by tifik » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #336

bluegatty wrote: post #333

It's absolutely a slippery slope - but most parents know how this is a very real thing as well. There's no controversy in having drugs, guns, alcohol, porn and other things 'behind the counter' - the intellectual debate over freedom of information is clouded by ideology. Definitely the 'slippery slope' debate is worth having, but that's way more relevant than the 'should 10-year-olds be able to do whatever' (aka all…

The point is there are much better ways to enforce this - like just setting up proper parental controls on a device. Kids can’t buy their own phone. So parents can always enforce stuff at a hardware level if they set it up properly. It would be much better to just mandate that phones set up with a kid profile cannot access social media.

The problem isn't an individual kids phone. It's their peers devices, or other ways they can explore the internet that isn't under their guardians control. This is a systemic issue that requires systemic approach. I am not making any claims about the qualities of currently discussed systemic solutions, but I do want to point out that the 'parents can just' argument is missing the mark.

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#345

Post by prolly97 » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC

bluegatty wrote: post #333

It's absolutely a slippery slope - but most parents know how this is a very real thing as well. There's no controversy in having drugs, guns, alcohol, porn and other things 'behind the counter' - the intellectual debate over freedom of information is clouded by ideology. Definitely the 'slippery slope' debate is worth having, but that's way more relevant than the 'should 10-year-olds be able to do whatever' (aka all…

At least half of the people in this thread survived growing up with access to social without age verification.

And I'm pretty sure we've all had an encounter with some creep in some random chat room too.

We talked about these things at school and at home. Don't share things with people you don't know etc. Idk if it's illegal to tell kids what to do these days. But when I grew up, we were occasionally also told to get off the computers and touch grass.

I hope I'll get to raise my future kids myself. I think I can do a better job than the government :)

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#346

Post by anthonypasq » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #334

worldsavior wrote: post #331

Isn't age verification actually a good thing? If you want a free internet, you don't let your kids browse these websites. Otherwise, it allows you to make sure they aren't watching "hurtful" content.

No, forcing everyone to verify their age is a terrible thing. That's not the same thing as keeping kids away from potentially harmful websites or people. That is positive, but it's awfully weird to enforce it by doing this terrible thing that hurts the open Internet when almost every single kid on the Internet is using a device and Internet connection provided by their guardian. Seems like we could figure something o…

Idk why people are so obsessed with this issue. Having to verify your age to access adult content seems completely reasonable. If you go into a grocery store and you bought a carrot you dont have to show age verification. if you also buy a beer you do.

Why is everyone so opposed to the internet working this way?

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#347

Post by knollimar » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

bluegatty wrote: post #333

It's absolutely a slippery slope - but most parents know how this is a very real thing as well. There's no controversy in having drugs, guns, alcohol, porn and other things 'behind the counter' - the intellectual debate over freedom of information is clouded by ideology. Definitely the 'slippery slope' debate is worth having, but that's way more relevant than the 'should 10-year-olds be able to do whatever' (aka all…

I think you'll find some parents feel that way about digital porn, too. There's a difference in supporting these laws from a privacy standpoint, esp that router and cell provider based controls are effective

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#348

Post by anthonypasq » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

godshatter wrote: post #270

bryan_w wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The state requires things sold to meet a bare minimum of safety. Cars sold require seat belts, movies/games sold require ratings. Devices sold have a meaningful parental controls flow.

Seat belts aren't forced on you - if you want to not use them and face the risk of fines, you can do so. Media ratings systems are informational, you can choose to let your kids watch R rated movies or above. Are they going to let parents have a choice when it comes to parental controls? What about non-parents? That's my gripe with the age verification systems I've seen, there is no room for parental choice and no co…

If something is illegal for kids to access it is illegal and therefore parental choice is being overriden by the state just like every single other thing that is illegal for kids to do such as smoke cigarettes, do drugs, drive etc.

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#349

Post by notepad0x90 » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #280

notepad0x90 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in real life people can see you and determine your age at a rough estimate and be able to tell if you're an adult or not. Do you support having to turn on your webcam and show your face in real time then, to talk to strangers on the internet? many age verification sites are doing just that.

Did you mean to reply to me? I evidently do not support the age verification regime, so no...

maybe?

I get that you don't, all I'm trying to do (and failing) is have a discussion, apply critical thinking and be able to articulate a position. I'm neither fully opposed to it, nor fully in support of it. I'm always seeking nuance. I've found out lazy reductionism is the cause of much suffering and loss in the world, I can be bothered with the tedious nuance, especially for a topic I know a thing or two about in my own view.

Unfortunately karma systems on sites like this are not conducive to such a discussion. I want to challenge your opposition to the age verification regime, so that I can be better informed, and you will stand on a more firm ground, articulating your views with solid arguments instead of "i don't like it".

Re: Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?

#350

Post by hawaiianbrah » Tue, Jun 02, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

pmg101 wrote: post #314

palata wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What this misses is that many parents do allow their children to access social media because kids need to conform . If all the other kids have social media access, your kid is excluded by not having access. Is it better to have TikTok AND friends, or no TikTok and no friends? Sure, the best is no TikTok and still have friends, but you can't always have it all.

It seems to me that the supply of friends is more or less unlimited, such that it's pretty reasonable to apply filters when choosing who to befriend. "Also not using tiktok" could be one such filter.

That may be true in theory, but not so much in practice where they only have so many people in their classes and extracurriculars.