But Meta/FB have been strongly lobbying to make it required at the OS level, so they aren't responsible for it, whereas Google and Apple both want it to be an application responsibility.
I think the CA version of this ended up with a carve-out for open source? I can't recall the details.
No, they all support harvesting your data so they can continue doing what they do best: building shadow profiles and targeting ads.
Nothing a signal of an age group tells them more than "send me more ads for XX year-olds".
Why do you think it's always a question asked in online surveys?
> No, they all support harvesting your data so they can continue doing what they do best: building shadow profiles and targeting ads.
I think we are agreeing adamantly here?
So they are in the golden zone of maximum exploitation and plausible deniability.
They will literally say:
Of course, we showed that one teen 500 gambling and porn ads a day, Apple/Google/Microsoft told us he is 65, it's their fault! Sure every other word he posted was rizz, but how could we possibly know he was not 65.
No, they really, really do not!
In their own words:
> There is a practical framework that directly answers the complex logistical challenges I’ve laid out: centralizing age verification and parental approval at the app store level. App stores are already the gateway through which teens access every app on their phones. And we don’t have to start from scratch. Apple and Google already collect age information when a parent sets up their teen’s phone, and they already have systems in place to obtain parental approval before teens can make purchases. We’re simply asking that this same mechanism be extended to all app downloads. By verifying a person’s age just once at this device level, the phone itself acts as a single, secure checkpoint.
https://about.fb.com/news/2026/06/how-to-verify-age-online/
Or:
> Meta has been lobbying the federal government for new rules to implement age verification at the app store level — which would put the burden on companies like Apple and Google, not individual platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/25/news/meta-lobbyi...
Or:
> Now they [ed: Meta] want Apple and Google to build similar systems that every app can access, turning age verification into persistent device fingerprinting.... The proposed laws hammer Apple's App Store and Google Play with compliance requirements but reportedly spare social media platforms
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reddit-user-uncovers-beh...
those buckets get the funnest ads
The other stuff they already get enough off. They dont need to know you're over 18. They don't want the liabilities of children killing themselves because an AI app told them something stupid.