alt Hacker NewsIt is a technical ratchet. Once you accept part of the implementation it will never be undone, more will be added.
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I don't think this is a safe assumption.
As a counter, actual age verification is being rolled out in other places. I really don't think we're in a position of choosing between no age-based access mechanism, and age-based access mechanism. Between the anti-porn types and public demand for some kind of regulations on social media, regulation of some kind is inevitable.
Our actual choice may only be what type of restriction we can live with, and I much prefer this type to the kind that requires websites to demand my id and photos of my face. Especially since some implementations of this concept (the California one, I think) declare that websites aren't legally required to look deeper than the attested age, which is a very nice feature.
Mind you, I don't know why the legislators are bothering mandating OS support for these features. It would be much easier to mandate that websites support the feature, make it clear to them that supporting the feature appropriately will free them from liability for children accessing content, and then wait as users demand that their OS support the feature.
Stronger: Once you accept their right to ask, then you open the door to their right to a truthful answer, and thus to a verified answer.
This is a nonsense argument considering over half the states have already put actual ID verification requirements in front of "adult content". Blue states are trying to ratchet to what red states just pass? Why? They could just follow suit and require you to upload your ID to a 3rd party service and scan your face. Your conspiracy theories don't seem to hold up to reality.
Very true, though this is something thats pretty difficult to get to by tiny increments, which is usually how these nefarious means are accomplished. One tiny thing is asked after another, each one too small to put up a fight against, and then suddenly they've crossed your line and you didn't even notice. Thats not particularly easy to do here, so the line will remain just as strong.
Maybe next they'll ask maintainers to go from a bracket to a specific age, and then next ask for verification, but the jump from specific age to verification is big enough that there'll be just as much resistance to it.