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

submitted 2 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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[-] flandish@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

exactly. so why do we need more laws that also happen to provide massive leak able tracking to corporations and govs without warrants, etc?

[-] notabot@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "massive leak able tracking" in this case. It's literally a flag that indicates the user's age bracket, and means sites don't use the really invassive options.

[-] flandish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

setting that flag involves the leakable process.

[-] notabot@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

Again, I'm only going by the Californian bill, but that one is pretty clear that the person setting up the account should either supply the user's birth date, or the age bracket they are in. There is nothing indicating this should be validated in any way. I'd agree that, if the machine was compromised, and the user's birth date was used, it would be possible to leak that data, but given those preconditions, it would be one of the least interesting things leaked. I'd certainly prefer to just store the age bracket, and have a way for the computer admin update it as the user grows towards their 18th birthday.

this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026

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