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> 2. Buy devices for kids that support a parental-lock feature, which when enabled causes the device to always send metadata outwards, such as HTTP headers. These would encode "I'm a minor in Jurisdiction X" or even "I am approximately Y months old in jurisdiction X."

I like the concept, but I can see bad actors abusing the heck out of these headers in so many ways.

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> I can see bad actors abusing the heck out of these headers

I disagree: Whatever evil they're already committing, a signal of "client device has parental lock enabled" would only make them very slightly more effective at committing it.

Those kinds of bad actors are already filtering for minors based on much more impactful means, like how/where the site is advertised and what it purports to offer.

In exaggerated contrast, I can't imagine some would-be-molester making a baroque plan to set up a Tax Advice Forum with a hidden code-path for parental-locked devices, one that metaphorically tells the user they've won a free giveaway to candy in a white truck.

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