Comment by skybrian
3 months ago
I don’t know why this isn’t a very simple Internet standard. The browsers on devices that have a child lock turned on could send an http header. People who have websites that are adult-only could configure their web server to check for that header and do something appropriate.
That requires cooperation, but since most adult websites don’t want children to be visiting them, cooperation shouldn’t be hard to get. Governments can pass a law and businesses can set a config flag. For uncooperative websites, child-locked devices can check a blacklist.
Then it’s up to parents to make sure their kids only have child-locked devices and for stores to not sell unlocked devices to kids. It’s never going to perfect, but it doesn’t doesn’t have to be to change community norms.
There is already a set of standards for this: websites can send content ratings to the browser, and the browser can choose not to show content on the basis of those ratings.
We don't need another one, especially one that inverts the polarity by having the browser proactively send information to the site.
Maybe that would work too, but “this device has a child lock turned on” seems like reasonable information to send? It’s a lot better than having to check ID’s.
You know what's even better? Not sending anything.
There's no value in sending that bit of information rather than in using what's already readily provided.
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As a parent, none of these are useful to me. Age is not a useful indicator of what’s appropriate for my kid. At best, this can avoid a small portion of some stuff they probably wouldn’t see anyway. The bad actors who I’m worried about actively try to circumvent any automated systems that block them. These age verification systems don’t help even if they worked as intended… or at least as advertised.
I guess it would be most helpful for websites that can show that they’ve done their part by setting a config flag.
If there’s no society-wide standard for what’s kid appropriate then it’s going to be hard to set up a system that satisfies everyone, but it seems like movie ratings sort of worked?
The CA law is pretty much this but for any program.
Then predators can show normal content to adults, while children are redirected. I'd rather the browser didn't leak this kind of information.
If the browser has to do the same thing for adults and children (to avoid detection) then it’s going to be hard to build a system that does different things for adults versus children.
As you suggested, the websites could send information about themselves and the browser then could decide locally. Then there is no data leak. Obviously not perfect, because just like how the cookie law is abused, people could abuse this system as well. But the browser passing around headers is not the solution.
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