Age verification started with porn and social media. Now, governments are passing laws requiring operating systems to collect your age before you can use your computer at all.
The laws as written are basically unenforceable. The main point of them is to shift the burden of age verification checks off of websites and on to OS providers. And the main point of the age verification stuff was to shift the public discussion around how manipulative social media “suggested” or “for you” algorithms cook people’s brains when trying to maximize engagement by pretending it’s only a problem for children.
Ultimately though, the failure to actually enforce these laws, and the failure to address the obvious issue will just lead to continued anger and another public call for regulation against brain cooking business practices at big tech companies.
The laws as written are basically unenforceable. The main point of them is to shift the burden of age verification checks off of websites and on to OS providers. And the main point of the age verification stuff was to shift the public discussion around how manipulative social media “suggested” or “for you” algorithms cook people’s brains when trying to maximize engagement by pretending it’s only a problem for children.
Ultimately though, the failure to actually enforce these laws, and the failure to address the obvious issue will just lead to continued anger and another public call for regulation against brain cooking business practices at big tech companies.