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

submitted 3 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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[-] Mesa@programming.dev 1 points 5 hours ago

Sure. I think clearly this thread has been talking about the OS piece specifically. I wholly disagree with having some private company that collects IDs and makes the determination themselves. If instead your browser can just ask your device if you have parental controls enabled, then that removes the privacy concern entirely, as far as I know. Is there an extra data point for browser fingerprinting? Yeah, I guess. But I would also assume that anyone who cares to avoid this fingerprinting is going to not have parental controls enabled.

Essentially, I'm confused why the world gave up so quickly on parental controls (not really confused—the alternative provides more surveillance capability).

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

But even if it happened purely at the OS level, it would be laughably unenforceable at best.

Essentially, I’m confused why the world gave up so quickly on parental controls (not really confused—the alternative provides more surveillance capability).

I can easily imagine a piece of software parents can download, for free, that if installed would basically function akin to a virus on someone's computer - it blacklists much of the internet and is updated and maintained by a company that updates the allowed sites and banned sites regularly. It could not be turned off. If it crashes, is ended by force, it automatically reloads - and any attempts to remove it sends emails or text messages to the owners (the parents) who would know something is up. It could be turned off only by the parent putting in a specific password to disable it, and if they forgot, they would have to phone the company to get it reset.

Any responsible parent would install this on the phones and computers of their kids and it would do everything they need.

[-] Mesa@programming.dev 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

One thing I said before is the question of what is the research on this, and how do we know child internet safety is actually a problem? I don't know the statistics on this, and I haven't done much studying on it yet. So I will admit that I have been operating under the premise that this is an issue to begin with. Someone mentioned routers with parental blocks. Aside from being able to easily disconnect from the network (inevitability for kids because it's easy and they have plausible deniability, in my opinion), if child internet safety is currently an issue, then clearly there is something about it that isn't working.

But even if it happened purely at the OS level, it would be laughably unenforceable at best.

Don't get me wrong, it would still require another component whether that be a requirement for websites to query the OS via the browser, or a database of "bad" websites.

Now, if you want there to be an app that handles this, that's your opinion and I respect that. Personally, I would rather it be built into the OS. Least of all because already-on-your-device is easier than something parents need to research and download on their kids' devices. More significantly, if this kind of capability becomes an expectation for your general usage OSes to have, then that's less incentive for some company to come in and try to capitalize off of it and charge $12.99 per month, and then still have incentive to collect and sell data on which sites are being visited. I mean, you can be reasonably sure that Microsoft is gonna do that too, but that would be another reason to switch to a Linux distro that doesn't do that.

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 1 points 4 hours ago

I meant there would be no way to stop any OS from just waving users through and automatically converting their account into an 'adult account', or just asking users "Are you 18 yes/no". How many variations of Linux are there now?

More significantly, if this kind of capability becomes an expectation for your general usage OSes to have, then that’s less incentive for some company to come in and try to capitalize off of it and charge $12.99 per month, and then still have incentive to collect and sell data on which sites are being visited. I mean, you can be reasonably sure that Microsoft is gonna do that too, but that would be another reason to switch to a Linux distro that doesn’t do that.

I'd be in favour of the government commissioning and funding this and making it free-to-access for parents.

[-] Mesa@programming.dev 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I meant there would be no way to stop any OS from just waving users through and automatically converting their account into an 'adult account', or just asking users "Are you 18 yes/no". How many variations of Linux are there now?

Right, but in this case, the parental controls just wouldn't be doing their job. I mean, you're right—there's nothing you can do about that. But if I'm turning on a setting to enable a parental control and it doesn't enable the parental control, then I'm 1) complaining about Microslop in the case of Windows, or 2) switching my kids to a different distro in the case of Linux. Again, I'm against the idea of government-mandated on the OS side. I'm undecided on the website side of things.

I'm gonna transcribe a section of a comment I made in another post:

Upon setting up the device or account, it is the parent's responsibility to create a password or biometric or whatever to activate/deactivate the safety mode. No personal information required. It should be pretty easy. Are there technically ways for the kid to get around this? Yes, but that'd be breaking the trust. In the same way you'd deal with your kid sneaking out of the house, you deal with that separately. | https://programming.dev/comment/22589550

I'd be in favour of the government commissioning and funding this and making it free-to-access for parents.

That's interesting. I'm in America and, unless it's FOSS, I definitely 100% do not trust a government-commissioned application that needs to see and manage all of my home's network traffic in order to work. Especially not right now.

[-] Skavau@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago

Right, but in this case, the parental controls just wouldn’t be doing their job. I mean, you’re right—there’s nothing you can do about that. But if I’m turning on a setting to enable a parental control and it doesn’t enable the parental control, then I’m 1) complaining about Microslop in the case of Windows, or 2) switching to a different distro in the case of Linux. Again, I’m against the idea of government-mandated on the OS side. I’m undecided on the website side of things.

Well if it's not mandated (on the OS side that you refer to) then sure.

That’s interesting. I’m in America and, unless it’s FOSS, I definitely 100% do not trust a government-commissioned application that needs to see and manage all of my home’s network traffic in order to work. Especially not right now.

I mean it would be opt-in. Me and you wouldn't ever get it and websites and developers wouldn't be burdened by it. That's the point.

No problem with your excerpt there either.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026

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