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United States law that would require all operating systems to implement mandatory age verification is now available to read.
The bill is ironically titled the Parents Decide Act rather than the Government Decides Act. It applies to all operating systems; Windows, Linux, embedded systems, even smart refrigerators. Developers will have full access to all relevant personal data.
The bill doesn't even specify how age verification will work and instead delegates this task to the FTC, which will also specify data storage/protection requirements. The law wiould be considered in effect one year from date it is enacted and violations will be handled under the Federal Trade Commission Act.
„Child protection“ laws like this have no good justification and simply amount to destroying anonymity on the internet. What benefit does anybody get from such a law anyway? I can't see any. If operating systems are so bad for 17 year olds, why don't parents just take their kids' phones away? How does 17 year olds using operating systems create negative externalities for other people? I'm not seeing what I'm supposed to be gaining from these laws. It seems like lazy parents have teamed up with law enforcement who hate anonymous internet usage to demand that governments destroy internet privacy under the thin veneer of protecting teenagers from nothing.
The Kids Aren't Alright, at least it seems. I constantly hear studies and anecdotes on how Gen Z and α are significantly more awkward, asocial, mentally ill; and evidence suggests social media is why.
Hence I think governments are desperate to get kids and teens off social media, or at least make it less toxic, and/or reduce usage, to fix them. I agree with that goal.
But I'm wary of these bills: they threaten anonymity, can be bypassed, add regulatory burden... Although this YouGov survey rates Australia's ban "cautiously optimistic". Still, I much prefer:
Banning phones in schools (which I think is so obvious, it's surprising and embarrassing many schools haven't already done it)
Encouraging more in-person socialization with after-school activities, kids third-spaces, etc.
Less toxic social media algorithms, better parental controls, cultural encouragement for parents to limit social media - not via laws
How do you make it work? Try it, and somebody will start screaming about how this is harassing 17 year olds who are old enough to [do legal thing] but you are imprisoning and enslaving teenagers yet again; parents will go on radio shows about how they absolutely need to be able to contact little Krissanteemum at any time of the day; a child genuinely will need their phone, not have it, and something bad happens; teachers will be accused of picking on and victimising minority kids, and the list goes on.
Yeah, you get Johnny and Susie to hand over their phone which is kept in a locker in the secretary's office. Haw haw dumb authorities, that was my burner phone! I still have my real one!
I, uh, am young enough to have gone to high school when smartphones were almost universal and simultaneously old enough for them to have still been banned at school while I was there.
The official policy was they weren't allowed on campus at all, but you can't enforce that. What they did enforce, was if you were caught with it out, you'd get a warning, and after that it would get confiscated. Parents were informed of this policy and understood it. If you needed to call home (which you never needed to do), you could ask to go to the office. It really wasn't that dramatic. I daresay it would work again today if only the school administrations could grow a pair.
Here, the whole province went ahead and did it, starting last fall (they were already banned from classrooms since january 2024).
Not being a teacher, a high school student or a parent of a high school student, and not being in frequent contact with either of these groups, I can't really say if that's the case, but the mainstream reporting I read on it seems that it has had a very positive effect.
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