3 ms·

I don't want to give the impression that I don't find the whole direction of travel concerning, because I do, but as I understand it, the requirement is that th

I don't want to give the impression that I don't find the whole direction of travel concerning, because I do, but as I understand it, the requirement is that the system administrator assigns ages to the users on their system. That seems pretty reasonable to me, and maybe even like a good idea in some scenarios. As far as I know, we aren't talking about software that fights against the interests of the system owner - that's the admin. In fact, I think this might be a feature I would even want.

user3939382 7mo ago
It's a shim for a legal requirement to tie TPM to your license and then to all online activity and computing.
- SV_BubbleTime 7mo ago
  I’m glad some people see this because the number of “oh but it’s just a small legal requirement they’re imposing” is nuts.
skissane 7mo ago
> but as I understand it, the requirement is that the system administrator assigns ages to the users on their system. That seems pretty reasonable to me, and maybe even like a good idea in some scenarios Does it require exact age, or just a flag >=18 vs <18? It seems like this could be trivially met by something like a file /etc/userages, where if a login is missing from that file, it is assumed they are >=18 - and a missing file is equivalent to an empty file
slopinthebag 7mo ago
> but as I understand it, the requirement is that the system administrator assigns ages to the users on their system. That seems pretty reasonable to me Why would it be reasonable for a government to use the power of law to enforce the design of an open source operating system developed by an international consortium of developers? The very fact they are even considering this is extremely suspicious.
- enoint 7mo ago
  I’m leaning that way, too. Achieving this ought to require a few conference calls between App Store principals. Flatpak and Snap? Sure. The protest and compliance disobedience would be unreasonable over a boring standards body, not a law which must be analyzed as a “framework”.
stephbook 7mo ago
Imagine your kid not being able to click "Im over 18" on a porn site, because Chrome read /etc/age and ratted the children's account out. Imagine your kid not being able to buy cigarettes easily because it can't pass an ID check at the convenience store. For most parents, this is actually nice-to-have. For the HN crowd, it's a doomsday scenario full of dictatorial government control.
- enoint 7mo ago
  You shouldn’t dismiss all libertarian points simply because some of them support libertarian agendas. Most HN commenters are fine with your two scenarios, but remember: 1. If kids could download cigarettes by circumventing age checks, would they? 2. If watching porn required obtaining an in-person ID check, other threads have indicated HN accepts it.

user3939382 7mo ago

It's a shim for a legal requirement to tie TPM to your license and then to all online activity and computing.

SV_BubbleTime 7mo ago
I’m glad some people see this because the number of “oh but it’s just a small legal requirement they’re imposing” is nuts.

skissane 7mo ago

> but as I understand it, the requirement is that the system administrator assigns ages to the users on their system. That seems pretty reasonable to me, and maybe even like a good idea in some scenarios Does it require exact age, or just a flag >=18 vs <18? It seems like this could be trivially met by something like a file /etc/userages, where if a login is missing from that file, it is assumed they are >=18 - and a missing file is equivalent to an empty file

slopinthebag 7mo ago

> but as I understand it, the requirement is that the system administrator assigns ages to the users on their system. That seems pretty reasonable to me Why would it be reasonable for a government to use the power of law to enforce the design of an open source operating system developed by an international consortium of developers? The very fact they are even considering this is extremely suspicious.

enoint 7mo ago
I’m leaning that way, too. Achieving this ought to require a few conference calls between App Store principals. Flatpak and Snap? Sure. The protest and compliance disobedience would be unreasonable over a boring standards body, not a law which must be analyzed as a “framework”.

stephbook 7mo ago

Imagine your kid not being able to click "Im over 18" on a porn site, because Chrome read /etc/age and ratted the children's account out. Imagine your kid not being able to buy cigarettes easily because it can't pass an ID check at the convenience store. For most parents, this is actually nice-to-have. For the HN crowd, it's a doomsday scenario full of dictatorial government control.

enoint 7mo ago
You shouldn’t dismiss all libertarian points simply because some of them support libertarian agendas. Most HN commenters are fine with your two scenarios, but remember: 1. If kids could download cigarettes by circumventing age checks, would they? 2. If watching porn required obtaining an in-person ID check, other threads have indicated HN accepts it.