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US state laws push age checks into the operating system
(www.theregister.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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The nudge at Norway in the end is a bit strange. They oppose enshitification. Age checks could be part of that but I wouldn't say it is a given. I'd rather look at the Norwegian government's stance on privacy in the internet, not sure what it is.
I hate the idea of age checks, but OS is the next best thing if they don't share the information beyond. In truth it is pointless other than tracking people.
"If"
They will. Once the age check at an OS level is implemented, the next level is to enforce that this check then use a verification service. And then to make this information available to sites upon access.
I 100% agree. Then there will be different (mandatory) verification services. Some will be paid, but the free ones (ran by Microslop and Google) that will sell all your personal data to their 500+ closest affiliates.
Ultimately, the end game will be certain websites (like your Bank) won't trust your identity because your using some FOSS verification service and as "they take security seriously" will require you to use MS or Google.
You can see parts of this already. When I'm browsing the web in Linux I get hot with way more captcha checks when accessing websites than when using Windows.
Even moreso with ad-blocker and PiHole. I swear that every corporate website has me do a captcha of some kind every time I click a link.
On that note, just denying trackers breaks SO many email links, and it feels like it gets worse and worse each year.
How would you even implement it otherwise?
(Well actually, you as a parent would be an admin, and create appropriate accounts for your children, and any third party would trust that age number set on that user account, thus pushing the burden back on the parent to properly parent. But they won’t do that because this isn’t really the point here.)
Well the way I view it is it's all useless. If a 10 year old goes to buy a phone, they can't do so without getting money from an adult who therefore approved of it. If a 15 year old buys a cell phone they can't.... Because they need an adult to have a credit card/bank that allows monthly payments. Only offered to an adult. If you are a minor you can only get one with an adults co-sign. Thus the idea that a child has access to the Internet without an adults consent is just untrue 99.9 percent of the time. schools monitor the traffic . So every situation comes down to negligence on the parent. Who will sign their account in, or their credit card on the kids phone... bypassing all reason for the laws
This is whay drives me, it was like that, and it worked if you did it, fuck it works when you do it. My kids cant see porn, or most ads. Why? Because I blocked that at my own router, and then again with age restricting on their appropriately created account. Its not hard this is all insanity.
"Once everyone has a credit card they will ban cash so that every transaction can be tracked"
"Once every phone has GPS they will make it mandatory to send your location to the government at all times."
"Once everyone has a car they will make walking illegal"
"Once everyone has an ID they will make it mandatory to scan it on every step"
"If you let gays get married people will marry their pets next"
Do those thing ever come true at all? Other than US being a fascist state run by corporations, did any country managed to pull off this slippery slope type trick? From what I see people either consent to being tracked in exchange for likes on social media or governments simply push mass face renegotiation and tracking (like in UK) without any sort of "step by step, boiling frog" type bullshit.
I agree with you, but the cash example is a bad one because there is a push to move entirely to electronic payments.
I mean at least the cars thing is pretty legitimately true. Not that you don't have a broader point.
Only in US. Many things are fucked up in US for many different reasons. People support it because of brainwashing. It's not slipped trough without anyone noticing.
The real answer is to swap it. Make websites have a tag for the type of content they contain. Browsers can then be configured to allow/disallow different types.
You get a way better version of the same claimed benefit of parental controls (that we know is a lie in the current version), and we aren't forcing our identification to be uploaded to major hacking target sites with questionable security