Okay you are ready to take a stand for freedom!
You are going to use an OS that isn’t going to bend the knee and comply with age verification laws. I solute you, comrade!
Here are the likely consequences of your choice:
The Feds aren’t coming after you. You aren’t going to be out on a watch list.
What will likely happen is that if you try to log into your Facebook account you will get a message that says “Your Operating System is not currently supported. Your user experience will be limited to Groups labeled “Everyone”.”
That’s basically it. Your personal user experience will be limited to “kid friendly” areas of the Internet. (Same with apps and games.)
That’s the real driver of these laws. Facebook and other app producers know that the days where they can just shrug off child predators using their products is coming to and end. Regardless of your opinion on age verification is as a solution, child predators are a real world problem and it’s not just the parents fault. The platforms have some responsibility too.
Which is exactly what Facebook and the others specifically don’t want -responsibility for their own platforms. That’s why they are pushing for these laws that off load their responsibility onto the OS makers. Then they can just say “Oh, we don’t have any responsibility for this child being abused in our platform. We asked the OS what the user’s age was and the OS reported 18+. What else could we have done?”
So, that’s the consequence if you choose to use an OS that refuses to comply. You’ll just be relegated to the kid friendly version of website, games, and applications.
(On the other hand, if your OS chooses to falsely report to a website or an app an age for a child that is abused, then the OS should also be held responsible. But at that point you can go ahead and blame the parents too for letting their child use an OS that isn’t safe for them to use.)
just to contrast with @org@lemmy.org here, I agree that this does not just fall on the parents. That is the same line of reasoning that gave us recycling as a solution for climate change. We need serious legislation and serious judicial action from our governments, and we’re not getting that. ID gate laws are a flimsy attempt to do something that looks good on the news and maybe even seems like a no-brainer to people who are unfamiliar with the technical side of things. These companies that show clear negligence need to be seized by the state and stripped for parts. Only then will companies (maybe) be scared into good-faith engagement to protect people that need it. Really though, serious anti-trust action would make a huge dent in this issue as it would have a chilling effect on a growth-first economy. Really really though, we need revolution against capital.
Yeah someone needs to get sued hard and have a big loss. But the reality of the world is that everyone keeps passing the buck, and right now it has landed on you and me, and that’s pretty fucked up.
Yes! That’s what you should be upset about. These companies are pushing these laws to get out of being held accountable for their products. Be upset about THAT and I’m on your side!
(But that would also mean that small developers and Fediverse hosts would also have to be held accountable for their service.)
I’m upset at both ID gate laws and the lack of strong anti-trust action. I’m also not going to assume a person only talking about one at a given time isn’t also upset at the other. Discussions about what people “should” talk about are for leaders in organized movements to have with each other to create the most effective response. Doing so in a public setting like this isn’t high-minded or insightful, it’s a waste of breath. If you care about strategies and tactics, you can join an organized movement, move up in the organization, and have a real say.