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How does the OS know that you moved from the "13-15" bracket to the "16-17" bracket without knowing your DoB? And this is the thin edge. Because in a few years

How does the OS know that you moved from the "13-15" bracket to the "16-17" bracket without knowing your DoB? And this is the thin edge. Because in a few years there'll be a bill saying something like "too many children are lying about their age online. We need to verify their age" and then we're capturing IDs and storing them somewhere.

Dylan16807 7mo ago
> How does the OS know that you moved from the "13-15" bracket to the "16-17" bracket without knowing your DoB? The OS has the birth date. Of probably 1-5 people. > And this is the thin edge. Because in a few years there'll be a bill saying something like "too many children are lying about their age online. We need to verify their age" and then we're capturing IDs and storing them somewhere. Those things are already happening. I see this kind of mechanism as significantly more of an alternative to privacy invasion than an enabler of privacy invasion.
- marcus_holmes 7mo ago
  Requiring the central database is the scary part. The political establishment used to be able to control what you read, through control of the media. Then 1995 happened and everyone got access to anything they wanted. The establishment have wanted to put that genie back in the bottle ever since. This is part of that effort.
  - Dylan16807 7mo ago
    > Requiring the central database is the scary part. Yes, agreed. And this type of proposal has no central database, so it removes the scary part. (Unless you're talking about the local accounts on each computer storing dates of birth for a single household as a "central database" in which case you're being ridiculous and please stop doing that.)
ThatPlayer 7mo ago
> How does the OS know that you moved from the "13-15" bracket to the "16-17" bracket without knowing your DoB? No one says it has to be automatic. The OS could require the parent to manually update it.
- mittensc 7mo ago
  So the kid boots up linux off a USB stick and makes it all pointless
  - watwut 7mo ago
    Overwhelming majority of kids wont. The idea that the average teenager even knows what those words mean is not realistic.
    - ChoGGi 7mo ago
      They may not, but the friend selling porn sticks at school does.
    - marcus_holmes 7mo ago
      Heard exactly the same thing about VPN use (kids won't know how to set up a VPN). Then Australia age verification kicked in, and VPN use went through the roof [0] And, of course, the response so far has included similar thoughts as the UK about banning VPNs [1] [0] https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comments/2026/mar/rise-vpn-use https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comme... [1] https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/no-approach-is-a-silver-bullet-uk-launches-online-safety-consultation-that-could-see-vpns-age-restricted https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/no-approa...
    - mittensc 7mo ago
      kids would have time and motivation... they will learn pretty fast
- godelski 7mo ago
  > The OS could require the parent to manually update it. How is their age verified? At some point one of two things is required: 1) A promise that the user is a certain age - Which puts us exactly where we are 2) Official identification is used to verify age - Which creates a PII nightmare That's it. There's only those two options. You may not believe #2 is going to be a privacy nightmare but we're already seeing it happen with Discord/OpenAI/LinkedIn and everyone else that uses Persona[1]. They aren't doing the minimal security things and already aren't doing what they claimed (processed on device, then deleted). This "hack" couldn't happen if that was true [0] https://cybernews.com/privacy/persona-leak-exposes-global-surveillance-capabilities/ https://cybernews.com/privacy/persona-leak-exposes-global-su... [1] https://withpersona.com/customers https://withpersona.com/customers

Dylan16807 7mo ago

> How does the OS know that you moved from the "13-15" bracket to the "16-17" bracket without knowing your DoB? The OS has the birth date. Of probably 1-5 people. > And this is the thin edge. Because in a few years there'll be a bill saying something like "too many children are lying about their age online. We need to verify their age" and then we're capturing IDs and storing them somewhere. Those things are already happening. I see this kind of mechanism as significantly more of an alternative to privacy invasion than an enabler of privacy invasion.

marcus_holmes 7mo ago
Requiring the central database is the scary part. The political establishment used to be able to control what you read, through control of the media. Then 1995 happened and everyone got access to anything they wanted. The establishment have wanted to put that genie back in the bottle ever since. This is part of that effort.
- Dylan16807 7mo ago
  > Requiring the central database is the scary part. Yes, agreed. And this type of proposal has no central database, so it removes the scary part. (Unless you're talking about the local accounts on each computer storing dates of birth for a single household as a "central database" in which case you're being ridiculous and please stop doing that.)

ThatPlayer 7mo ago

> How does the OS know that you moved from the "13-15" bracket to the "16-17" bracket without knowing your DoB? No one says it has to be automatic. The OS could require the parent to manually update it.

mittensc 7mo ago
So the kid boots up linux off a USB stick and makes it all pointless
- watwut 7mo ago
  Overwhelming majority of kids wont. The idea that the average teenager even knows what those words mean is not realistic.
  - ChoGGi 7mo ago
    They may not, but the friend selling porn sticks at school does.
  - marcus_holmes 7mo ago
    Heard exactly the same thing about VPN use (kids won't know how to set up a VPN). Then Australia age verification kicked in, and VPN use went through the roof [0] And, of course, the response so far has included similar thoughts as the UK about banning VPNs [1] [0] https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comments/2026/mar/rise-vpn-use https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/media-releases-and-expert-comme... [1] https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/no-approach-is-a-silver-bullet-uk-launches-online-safety-consultation-that-could-see-vpns-age-restricted https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/no-approa...
  - mittensc 7mo ago
    kids would have time and motivation... they will learn pretty fast
godelski 7mo ago
> The OS could require the parent to manually update it. How is their age verified? At some point one of two things is required: 1) A promise that the user is a certain age - Which puts us exactly where we are 2) Official identification is used to verify age - Which creates a PII nightmare That's it. There's only those two options. You may not believe #2 is going to be a privacy nightmare but we're already seeing it happen with Discord/OpenAI/LinkedIn and everyone else that uses Persona[1]. They aren't doing the minimal security things and already aren't doing what they claimed (processed on device, then deleted). This "hack" couldn't happen if that was true [0] https://cybernews.com/privacy/persona-leak-exposes-global-surveillance-capabilities/ https://cybernews.com/privacy/persona-leak-exposes-global-su... [1] https://withpersona.com/customers https://withpersona.com/customers