4 ms·

Age verification at the OS level makes no sense to me. Most households aren't going to have a separate device for every family member and so you will end up wi

Age verification at the OS level makes no sense to me. Most households aren't going to have a separate device for every family member and so you will end up with a tablet or computer set up by one of the parents (and thus having their age stored) that will be used by both parents and children. Likewise, people generally won't create a separate account for every potential user.

izacus 7mo ago
What are you talking about, most households give personal phones to their children, especially teenagers. Laptops aren't rare either.
- bradfa 7mo ago
  I suspect there’s quite a difference between what most people do and what most HN commenters do.
  - dathinab 7mo ago
    I frequently see comments which would have made sense in the past (e.g. early 2000th) but kinda aren't fully reflecting reality anymore it's as if humans have a tendency to make up their mind/world view in their younger years and then tend to kinda stick with it/only change it slowly as long as no big live changing events happen
- zamalek 7mo ago
  Give the kid a device that is age-controlled. No need for all devices to support it.
  - pas 7mo ago
    the law is there because parents are fucking clueless unprincipled whining crybabies, who need a lot of support, and sometimes that includes a bit of pushing ... or who knows what problem is this supposed to fix. orphans buying phones? kids buying secret phones behind their parents back?
- chazeon 7mo ago
  Most CA households may be, but obviously not everywhere
- DebtDeflation 7mo ago
  Once you get outside the SV and NYC bubbles, the vast majority of kids do not have their own laptops in the US. Phones, obviously are somewhat more common, but as even you note that's mainly with regard to teenagers - the average 10 year old in middle America does not have their own phone.
  - planteur 7mo ago
    Most of these kids have their own tablets though: > By 2 years old, 4 in 10 children have their own tablet (40%), and by 4 years old, more than half of children (58%) do. Tablet ownership rises to 68% at age 8. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/2025-common-sense-census-web-2.pdf https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/researc...
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
dathinab 7mo ago
> Age verification at the OS level makes no sense to me. it's the only form of "age verification" which can be done in a somewhat privacy respecting way (as in at most leak the age) the idea is to "bounce back" the "is old enough" decision to parent controls and let the parent choose (the Californian law doesn't quite do that perfectly, but goes into that direction) and if you sell what is more or less a general purpose compute/internet access device with OS (which I do include phones into) I think it's very reasonable to either sell it to adults only (with a disclaimer it's "not for children") or include proper parent controls > Most households aren't going to have a separate device for every family member in current times in the west it is very very common for many devices to be for one person only. Especially phones, or at least have different (OS) accounts. but again this comes back to "parent controls", weather that is for a child (OS) account or a way to switch from a child profile to a adult profile doesn't matter but in the end, the point of such laws should be to give parents tools to parent. As well as handling the case of parent acting in neglect by inaction. But if a parent intentional decides to give their children a device with their profile because they think it's fine than that should be their choice and responsibility. > Likewise, people generally won't create a separate account for every potential user. where it was possible I have not seen it not used, weather it's on a switch, gaming console or PC. It is the most convenient way of automatically separates logins, browsing history, game safes etc. and the law als isn't made for that shared computer in the living room (through it will apply there). It's more about the devices children might use unsupervised, e.g. their phone.
- johnisgood 7mo ago
  Or just not have it at all? What is wrong with parental controls AND parenting? What real issue does this solve?
  - Bender 7mo ago
    What is wrong with parental controls AND parenting? Nothing. This has never been about protection of children. It is tracking real identity from every source to every destination otherwise known as user-tracking. If this was about protecting children they would require an RTA header on all adult and user-generated content sites and require the most common user agents to look for that header if parental controls are enabled. No tracking, no uploading anything. [1] Sufficient for small children which is more than we have now or will ever have thanks to corporate greed and lobbying. [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074
TiredOfLife 7mo ago
Every semi competent os has suppoert for multiple users
ArtRichards 7mo ago
Apparently there's been work to expose Meta pushing/funding this, to shift age responsibility from them and force for fine grained age data to be provided to apps.
xtiansimon 7mo ago
> “Most households aren't going to have a separate device for every family member…” They want us to all to have user accounts and login like well behaved workers. So cute. Little Donald can login for hisself, and doesn’t need mommy to do it for him.
egorfine 7mo ago
> Age verification at the OS level makes no sense to me If taken at face value, sure. The goal of those age verification laws are not age verification.

izacus 7mo ago

What are you talking about, most households give personal phones to their children, especially teenagers. Laptops aren't rare either.

bradfa 7mo ago
I suspect there’s quite a difference between what most people do and what most HN commenters do.
- dathinab 7mo ago
  I frequently see comments which would have made sense in the past (e.g. early 2000th) but kinda aren't fully reflecting reality anymore it's as if humans have a tendency to make up their mind/world view in their younger years and then tend to kinda stick with it/only change it slowly as long as no big live changing events happen
zamalek 7mo ago
Give the kid a device that is age-controlled. No need for all devices to support it.
- pas 7mo ago
  the law is there because parents are fucking clueless unprincipled whining crybabies, who need a lot of support, and sometimes that includes a bit of pushing ... or who knows what problem is this supposed to fix. orphans buying phones? kids buying secret phones behind their parents back?
chazeon 7mo ago
Most CA households may be, but obviously not everywhere
DebtDeflation 7mo ago
Once you get outside the SV and NYC bubbles, the vast majority of kids do not have their own laptops in the US. Phones, obviously are somewhat more common, but as even you note that's mainly with regard to teenagers - the average 10 year old in middle America does not have their own phone.
- planteur 7mo ago
  Most of these kids have their own tablets though: > By 2 years old, 4 in 10 children have their own tablet (40%), and by 4 years old, more than half of children (58%) do. Tablet ownership rises to 68% at age 8. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/2025-common-sense-census-web-2.pdf https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/researc...

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

dathinab 7mo ago

> Age verification at the OS level makes no sense to me. it's the only form of "age verification" which can be done in a somewhat privacy respecting way (as in at most leak the age) the idea is to "bounce back" the "is old enough" decision to parent controls and let the parent choose (the Californian law doesn't quite do that perfectly, but goes into that direction) and if you sell what is more or less a general purpose compute/internet access device with OS (which I do include phones into) I think it's very reasonable to either sell it to adults only (with a disclaimer it's "not for children") or include proper parent controls > Most households aren't going to have a separate device for every family member in current times in the west it is very very common for many devices to be for one person only. Especially phones, or at least have different (OS) accounts. but again this comes back to "parent controls", weather that is for a child (OS) account or a way to switch from a child profile to a adult profile doesn't matter but in the end, the point of such laws should be to give parents tools to parent. As well as handling the case of parent acting in neglect by inaction. But if a parent intentional decides to give their children a device with their profile because they think it's fine than that should be their choice and responsibility. > Likewise, people generally won't create a separate account for every potential user. where it was possible I have not seen it not used, weather it's on a switch, gaming console or PC. It is the most convenient way of automatically separates logins, browsing history, game safes etc. and the law als isn't made for that shared computer in the living room (through it will apply there). It's more about the devices children might use unsupervised, e.g. their phone.

johnisgood 7mo ago
Or just not have it at all? What is wrong with parental controls AND parenting? What real issue does this solve?
- Bender 7mo ago
  What is wrong with parental controls AND parenting? Nothing. This has never been about protection of children. It is tracking real identity from every source to every destination otherwise known as user-tracking. If this was about protecting children they would require an RTA header on all adult and user-generated content sites and require the most common user agents to look for that header if parental controls are enabled. No tracking, no uploading anything. [1] Sufficient for small children which is more than we have now or will ever have thanks to corporate greed and lobbying. [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46152074

TiredOfLife 7mo ago

Every semi competent os has suppoert for multiple users

ArtRichards 7mo ago

Apparently there's been work to expose Meta pushing/funding this, to shift age responsibility from them and force for fine grained age data to be provided to apps.

xtiansimon 7mo ago

> “Most households aren't going to have a separate device for every family member…” They want us to all to have user accounts and login like well behaved workers. So cute. Little Donald can login for hisself, and doesn’t need mommy to do it for him.

egorfine 7mo ago

> Age verification at the OS level makes no sense to me If taken at face value, sure. The goal of those age verification laws are not age verification.