this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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You put your device in child safety mode, and it tells sites "I'm a kid, treat me like a kid" -- otherwise the site can assume you're an adult with full rights. Done. No intrusive ID requirements. No face scanning. No third-party payment shakedowns. Parents, in theory, can still stop their five year olds from accidentally accessing PornHub or other content that would disturb them by just clicking a button when they set up an account on the device.
It's, frankly, the sane way to do this if we're going to have age restrictions.
Honestly, I don't picture this happening. The main problem is parents parking their kids in front of screens or devices with internet access and then just bailing. Most devices have the means to do this and have so for a long time, it’s called “parental control”. It’s been a thing since the late 90s in my experience and probably earlier. The problem is it requires some time/effort to set up. I’m not advocating for the digital ID solution to this problem necessarily, just to be clear. However, even anti virus suites have this ability, routers have this ability, hell even browsers do if I recall but people and parents have been hands off about it.
Now they are complaining and expecting the entire internet to change or blaming online porn companies. The alternative is realising that letting kids have unfettered and unmonitored access to the internet, the place where you can easily view graphic footage of people dying, is actually a bad idea; bordering on neglect. Though this ignores places like Tik Tok, YouTube and a lot of social media marketing their platforms as “kid friendly” when they’re anything but, probably a different discussion however.
If parents choose not to parent, they don't get to complain to the government that no one is parenting their kids, and that the government should do it for them.
100% agree, unfortunately that’s entirely what they do either directly or by supporting lobbying groups who pretend to be “thinking of the children”.