21 points by hanifbbz 3 hours ago | 5 comments
0x69420 21 minutes ago
finding it increasingly difficult to summon any optimism with respect to this stuff. opposing policy, proponents of which can fall back on "think of the children", is an uphill battle with both hands tied behind your back. the way things are going, someone born today, by the time they reach my age, simply won't have been able to get in touch with 90% of interests i value and give my life meaning.

back in my time as an (inadvisably) precociously online kid, the only real age barrier was having a credit card, so i had to beg/borrow/steal my way to someone on irc giving me a shell to a vps, and pay some other rando with a steam gift card to buy a domain then transfer it to my registrar account. and like that, i could start developing a presence in whatever online communities i insinuated myself into by acting mature enough nobody gave my age a second thought. physical realities like divorce and school troubles came and went, but moving and shaking online gave me my most steadfast friends and s/o to this day.

shift the timeframe a couple decades and i would have instead been gated by an id upload. bleak.

widforss 1 hour ago
When they write "GitHub", I guess they mean "Microsoft"? Maybe this is the hero we deserve, but it's not the hero we need.
cantalopes 47 minutes ago
"Policymakers around the world are advancing age assurance proposals to protect children and teens online." Noone is doing this in order to "protect children"
WhyNotHugo 14 minutes ago
I find it a bit embarrassing that this kind of propaganda is in the first page without any form of disclaimer.
nchmy 1 hour ago
Can someone please ELI5?
fallpeak 39 minutes ago
AFAICT they're basically saying "hey lawmakers we're not going to rock the boat or take a stand so in exchange pretty please don't lump us into the app store category"
jchw 44 minutes ago
Sorry, but due to age assurance laws we can no longer provide ELI5 explanations. Best we can do is explain it to you like it's your 18th birthday.
rjsw 1 hour ago
Go and play outside.
Animats 1 hour ago
Maybe age assurance should be in the display. The display's camera has to verify the age of the viewer to display adult content.

That might be simpler. Estimating age with a camera is already common in China. Cameras are cheap, and displays now probably have enough processing power to do it locally.

Will work for TVs, too.

fc417fc802 13 minutes ago
Your comment is constructive but I think it would be difficult for me to disagree more. Perhaps we should stop having a moral panic and realize that a few bad actors are pushing these laws in an attempt to dodge responsibility. Let's instead ban automated advertising targeted at an individual level as well as black box personalized "engagement" (ie outrage) algorithms.

It would probably also be a good idea to find a way to ban gambling mechanics in games because if we recognize casinos as vices that lead to widespread social dysfunction and that children have no business whatsoever interacting with them then it follows that gacha games are very clearly an end run around the spirit of the law.

rjsw 1 hour ago
Kids have already found that drawing a false mustache on themself works to defeat age checks using a camera.