Hacker News Reader

Comment by stego-tech | Hacker News Reader

Good on them. Devices shouldn't collect any extraneous data by default other than that needed to fulfill a feature a user consciously selects, and that includes this stupid age verification spyware regimes are pushing.

An adult had to pay for the ISP connection; that's the extent of age verification needed. We shouldn't be demanding adults expose their identities to for-profit entities and surveillance states, so much as mandating for-profit companies make parental controls easier to use, more effective, and stopping them from harvesting data on kids in the first place.

Not every corner of the universe needs to be baby-proofed; we just need to build a society where parents are enabled and supported to be parents, rather than outsourcing such a critical role to strangers and/or devices so they can get back to work.

View on HN

> An adult had to pay for the ISP connection

In many countries, it is still possible to buy a prepaid SIM without any ID.

And if such a country wants to keep kids off of the unrestricted internet they should just ban that practice.

And HN would complain even more about the loss of privacy.

Fewer and fewer countries. I think none of the countries I've been too where I've purchased a SIM without ID allow that anymore. It is required to try to limit purchase by scam call centers and to enable phone number portability.

So, they can change that if they want.

Apps requesting an age is not extraneous and there are many legal and safety reasons why an app may collect this information. If the operating system doesn't do it you run into the cookie banner situation where every individual site has to implement a dialog box asking the user instead of there being a standardized way to do it.

Except the cookie banners are also optional, unless you're using third-party services to collect that data. Don't blame the cookie banner, blame the dozens or hundreds of "partners" that site is using to "process" your data, blame the site owner for building such a travesty of a page that they have so many "partners" in the mix harvesting extraneous info unnecessary for basic functionality instead of building a better, cleaner, leaner, targeted service.

So is an app needing the age of the user. That doesn't mean there are not a bunch of people who will collect the information. It's like saying washing your hands before cooking food is optional and that people should blame restaurants for serving food. It's not a serious suggestion. Restaurants will continue with the business model of exchanging food for money and websites will continue with the business model of showing ads. These kinds of businesses will exist forever.

I'll bite: what's the safety reason for an app to ask for age verification?

What kind of apps do you people use that are so dangerous? Does the computer zap you if you misuse the app or what?

For example an app may want to disable chat or private messages with other people if the user is a kid.

> An adult had to pay for the ISP connection

Ever heard of free wifi?

I have! And an adult still has to pay the connection charges to offer that free wi-fi. Or provide the funds for a kid to buy a device to connect to said free wi-fi.

You can go down the rabbit hole as far as you like, but it's to no avail. At some point, an adult has to consciously enable the child to connect to the internet. Full stop.

I agree with the sentiment you're expressing however I think "consciously enable" might be taking it a step too far. Modern devices off no end of unexpected was to gain internet access.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com