this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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Different countries (actually different regions within said countries) have different laws related to what "kids" can and can't see and what age defines a "kid". How much that matters is up to you. But it provides an automated check that ALSO avoids having to say "Hey mom? I just turned 18 and for no reason whatsoever it would be great if you could switch my account to an adult. Also make sure to knock and don't look too closely at my laundry basket ever again".
And what do you think you are providing every time you tick "Yes, I am 18 years or older" or "Yes, I was born in 1920 or whatever the first option is now"?
That's there point, with this websites will just know the users age, before it was the users choice: "are you 18 or over?" But now it will be: "I know you're 37.567 years old" user has no idea. Maybe we should add religion and skin color too
The idea of storing age in the OS is that end programs don't actually access it directly. They get age ranges, like child/adult, not the actual birthdate. In theory, it's much more private than uploading your id and photo to every random website/app that you use.
there is no such thing as privacy when sharing private information, that's accessible remotely.
leaks can and will occur. but more importantly this will be used to create digital associations between inviduals and Their online presence, just like all the other digital identity laws have.
it protects no one, as getting around it is easy as lying. while intentionally harming adults that comply out of necessity.
there is a reason people are jumping ship from privacy invading services already...
the solution is holding parents (and the child) responsible for the action of their childrens actions and not trying to create industry wide privacy invasion for bad actors to use. what's next, gold stars for Linux users to wear?