Age verification can be abused by predators to seek out children. Age verification laws are requiring software to check the age of the user in more and more jurisdictions around the world. California’s laws are probably the most strict, requiring the age verification to happen in the operating system if the operating system can install apps over the Internet (which nowadays, includes all operating systems).

The legislators who pass these laws have been paid large campaign donations (“bribed” by any other name) to argue that these laws will give parents more control over what their children see on the Internet and what apps their children use.

But now any child predator can create a website, such as a website with nice, innocuous-looking, family-friendly, free games to play, and then collect information about people who use the website, like IP addresses, and web browser fingerprints, what kind of games are played, and of everyone who visits your website. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see what a child predator could do with such a list of users when sorting that list by the user’s age.

I can’t help but wonder if it just a coincidence that a large number of the people in the Jefferey Epstein papers have still not been brought to justice, some of whom may still be paying these bribes to politicians?

#AgeVerification #AgeVerificationLaw #EpsteinPapers #JeffereyEpstein #EpsteinClass #ChildSafety #OnlineChildSafety #ChildSafetyLegislation

Important research and documentation that businesses that profit from consumer data collection are lobbying governments to mandate age verification:

"Meta Platforms: Lobbying, Dark Money, and the App Store Accountability Act
An open-source intelligence investigation into how Meta Platforms built a multi-channel influence operation to pass age verification laws that shift regulatory burden from social media platforms onto Apple and Google's app stores."

https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

#osint #privacy #opensource #lobbying #ageverificationlaw #security

MidnightBSD developers are building system tools like aged and agectl to comply with age-verification laws including Digital Age Assurance Act.

More details here: https://ostechnix.com/midnightbsd-age-verification-tools/

#MidnightBSD #aged #agectl #daemon #commandline #DigitalAgeAssuranceAct #AgeVerificationLaw #Legal #Compliance #BSD #Unix

Seems like those boomers don't understand how the Linux community works

#Linux #AgeVerification #AgeVerificationLaw #Meme #Memes #RoastingCalifornia #FosseryTech

Reddit challenges Australia’s teen social ban

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://dailytimes.com.pk/1416777/reddit-challenges-australias-teen-social-ban/

Texas Will Require Your ID to Download Weather Apps. Yes, Really.

https://techlore.tv/w/8ZVAWTne7htxWzf3fx4Z5G

#Tech industry group sues #Arkansas over new #socialmedia #laws

> Arkansas is among several states that have been enacting restrictions on social media, prompted by concerns about the impact on children’s mental health. #NetChoice — whose members include #TikTok, #Facebook parent #Meta, and the social platform #X — challenged Arkansas’ 2023 #ageVerification #law for social media.

https://apnews.com/article/net-choice-arkansas-huckabee-sanders-a228cad0c8ed00e4be0b637e12b73f09

#technology #news #ageVerificationLaw