The whole assumption in this article is that any age gated apps are worth sticking with for some wondrous reason.

No thanks.

It also lists drm issues and unsupported anticheat mechanisms as a supportive argument.

Whole thing is tone deaf.

Maybe that’s the point? Engagement farming? Not sure.

Either way, no thanks on any of those.

Personally I take any 'age check' I can't get around with a VPN and a browser ID string (or whatever the kids find next) as evidence of egregious enshittification, and my answer is to stop using that site.

But I'm in a privileged position where I don't need to for work, never did facebook et. al., dropped reddit (and slashdot before it) except for niche, mostly read only stuff that I can drop in a heartbeat and am a non USian. The vasty majority of internet users are not.

The article is right, this is going to cause headaches at the least and breakage at the worst. Once 99% of the population has accepted this (95% of non phone users), they'll come for linux, rewriting and refining the currently broken legislation. The politician class globally hates free speech and private communication, this is another big nail in the coffin.

I have some hope that the internet will treat de-anonymization like censorship and route around the damage, at least for quite a while. Sturgeon's law also applies, at least 90% of the internet is crap, and the proportion is climbing fast with AI slop, but it's also the greatest single step in freedom of access to (useful) information ever and I don't want to lose that, and we shouldn't have to pay for it with voluntary surveillance.

Remember, there's a bunch of other choke points that can be used to the same effect as OS, ISPs, DNS, fingerprinting, search engine, the list goes on. It's just that Microsoft, Apple, Google actually want this for the data harvesting potential so OS is easy.

At some point there will be a need for internet 2.0 built with anonymity and encryption baked into the bottom layers, perhaps it's time to start building.

Age verification seems silly but if Linux doesn't play along with compatibility, it's doing to be locked out here in 3 years.

Honestly they can just fuck off. Anti cheat doesn't work on linux? Ok I won't play your game. Age verification will be just like that too. You require it? Guess I won't play then. I'll vote with my wallet.

Anyone who thinks age verification is a good idea and claims to be a linux fan needs to get their head on straight, this is meant to consolidate control not protect kids. They don't give a shit about kids.

Braindead take.