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Why is checking age at os-level that bad? (lemmy.fait.ch)

submitted 4 days ago by olivier@lemmy.fait.ch to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Don't get me wrong, I'm all for privacy. But between setting up the birthdate when creating my children's local account on their computers, and having to send a copy of their ID to every platform under the sun, I'd easily chose the former.

I'd even agree to a simple protocol (HTTP X-Over-18 / X-Over-21 headers?) to that.

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[-] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago

This is a bad idea for privacy: Slippery Slope. @VitoRobbles@lemmy.today has explained this perfectly. It also gives you more data that you can use to fingerprint your users. 1 new data point that might enable better targeting and deanonymization

This is also a bad idea for security: The mere presence of this signal exists allows it to be used for nefarious purposes, such as giving u-18 or u-21 signal to enter "protected space".

This is also a bad idea for the non mega corps. It allows the platforms (like FB, YT, Twitch, etc.) to throw away their moderation teams and ask for OS level fixes because of the age reporting mechanism worked, then this would have never happened.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026

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