13 votes

Apple brings age verification to UK users in iOS 26.4

8 comments

  1. [5]
    Chiasmic
    Link
    Alternative source for pay wall Found this via Reddit. Looks like age verification is even getting baked in to the OS. It blocks downloading apps and even adult websites (source). From what I...

    Alternative source for pay wall

    Found this via Reddit. Looks like age verification is even getting baked in to the OS. It blocks downloading apps and even adult websites (source).

    From what I understand in Colorado and California(!) they are introducing laws to bake age verification in desktop OS including Linux (reddit1,reddit2)

    This direction of travel is rather concerning to me. The quite rapid moves to seize control over all computing technology does really concern me, especially as it seems to be an international effort to gain this control. Most people don’t seem to care and I doubt a political solution will be possible. Is anyone else concerned by this? I fundamentally believe privacy is required for a functioning democracy and these kind of moves would give an authoritarian government way too much control in the digital era.

    10 votes
    1. [2]
      ButteredToast
      Link Parent
      That all of these age verification laws are appearing at roughly the same time globally is very strange. Not to sound conspiratorial, but the case for there being some central authority pushing...

      That all of these age verification laws are appearing at roughly the same time globally is very strange. Not to sound conspiratorial, but the case for there being some central authority pushing for them is strong.

      9 votes
      1. snake_case
        Link Parent
        I figured it was because bots cant pass age verification and the entire internet is being overrun by bots and its affecting everyone

        I figured it was because bots cant pass age verification and the entire internet is being overrun by bots and its affecting everyone

    2. scojjac
      Link Parent
      Yeah, it's absolutely foolish to believe that the list of what requires age verification to access will not be expanded. The German chancellor is pushing for real names online — a very Zuckerberg...

      Yeah, it's absolutely foolish to believe that the list of what requires age verification to access will not be expanded. The German chancellor is pushing for real names online — a very Zuckerberg stance. I expect we will also see more things be restricted or banned under extremism and anti-terrorism laws.

      Also, I believe it was the wrong move to push for alternative app stores alone — people should be able to install mobile apps from websites the way we do desktop software. The internet is rapidly moving in the wrong direction.

      4 votes
    3. Slystuff
      Link Parent
      Slightly cynical but I wonder if this could lead to a price spike in devices too old to get iOS 26, providing that they don't backport the check to older versions via a security update.

      Slightly cynical but I wonder if this could lead to a price spike in devices too old to get iOS 26, providing that they don't backport the check to older versions via a security update.

      3 votes
  2. Narry
    Link
    To bring this back to a Heinlein quote that sticks with me:

    To bring this back to a Heinlein quote that sticks with me:

    How anybody expects a man to stay in business with every two-bit wowser in the country claiming a veto over what we can say and can't say and what we can show and what we can't show — it's enough to make you throw up. The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.

    2 votes