Age-verification in Operating Systems and the Internet by Alcides Fonseca

Several jurisdictions are passing laws requiring operating systems to implement age verification, including Brazil (effective March 17, 2026), California, Colorado, and New York. The author argues these laws create a privacy trap: proving age requires collecting personal data, which conflicts with data-privacy law. The author critiques both the American approach (device-based guardian permissions) and the European approach (government ID authentication, which ends anonymous internet). Apple has already released an age-range API in response. The author contends that mandating OS-level accounts is misguided, that researchers warn these measures lack proven impact, and proposes a simpler alternative: nonprofit or government-maintained whitelists of age-appropriate sites configurable by parents on children's devices.