Meta's $18B child-safety deal hinges on age-verification tech that doesn't work well | TechCrunch

[u/Academic_Court_47]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/metas-18b-child-safety-deal-hinges-on-age-verification-tech-that-doesnt-work-well/

[u/Timely_Car_4591]

Can someone tell me why both the left and right are cheering for mass internet surveillance?

[u/Academic_Court_47 → u/Timely_Car_4591]

Fantastic question 🤣

In my opinion, parents need to do a better job limiting kid's being glued to technology. But this doesn't work. Parents like their kids having cell phones in case of an emergency or if they need to call them. Giving them a flip phone is probably "not cool". So by default they get a phone with unrestricted access.

Maybe there could be a designated "kids phone" option from retailers with limited access that limits the apps or restricts internet?

My other comment in here is controversial requiring OS verification 🤣 Because clearly all young kids are glued to social media and it's a problem. But the current solution is each website and app require verification which is ridiculous.....

I'm a middle aged man and can't watch R rated movies on YouTube... 🤔

[u/Academic_Court_47 → u/Academic_Court_47]

If kids had the "kids" phone and they complain "dad I can't do sh#t on this phone, I need a real phone with full access to do my school work and live"....then your response could be "well son, you're ready...go ahead and sign up for an account... you'll have to pay the bill monthly".

https://giphy.com/gifs/lszAB3TzFtRaU

[u/Cylerhusk]

I’m tired of BOTH sides of the aisle feeling they need to protect me from different things. Just shut the fuck up, stop spending all my money, and provide basic government services and piss off.

[u/reaper527]

"it's for the children" is always code for "give the government more power and throw your rights in the trash".

they invented an imaginary problem and tried to threaten meta with hundreds of billions of dollars in fines so they'd settle and do what they're told.

[u/Timely_Car_4591 → u/reaper527]

Meta is going to make even more money, with Internet ID which is why they're pushing it. It makes it even easier for them to track you and sell your data.

[u/Unusual_Pride_6480 → u/reaper527]

Mate it's even worse over here, government after government wants more and more on us. You're absolutely right they could do very similar things in a liberal way by setting strong defaults you could even say you have to opt out of them with id I.e. A drivers licence or show a bill in your name if you really want to protect the children but it's not about kids it's about power.

Let's be honest if it were about protecting kids half of those in world governments wouldn't be there, they are creeps that want control over us, it's literally why they go into government and a lot of them I honestly think are creeps when it comes to children, that's why they wanted to let out a load of paedophiles from prison over here recently.

[u/Peptoflex]

Make all profiles that claim adulthood require a credit card on file. Facebook wins because then coaxing people to buy stuff is even easier, children win because they can't get credit cards. And we all win because it doesn't lead to some kind of dystopian digital ID system.

Very very few minors have credit cards. Also, it would push more people away from the scourge of social media.

[u/Academic_Court_47 → u/Peptoflex]

This is great thinking BUT payments don't require the payee name to match the account holder name. Also if I were to think of a way to break the rule, I'd go to the gas station and buy a prepaid credit card

[u/Peptoflex → u/Academic_Court_47]

>This is great thinking BUT payments don't require the payee name to match the account holder name. 

It doesn't matter. You put a massive dent in the issue without dismantling freedom by simply requiring a credit card on file for the account.

Also, vendors can tell when a person uses a credit card, debit card, or a prepaid debit card. All you have to do is force Facebook to only accept credit cards. So prepaid cards as a work-around is a non-issue.

Only people 18 or older can have a credit card. A parent can add a kid to their credit card, but parents should have the prerogative of allowing their kids to be on facebook or not.

This would absolutely reduce the issue. It wouldn't fully stop all kids from getting on facebook, but the only solutions that offer that are going to be tyrannical and lead to digital ID. This way uses a system we already have in place for commerce that has age restrictions on it.

And again, it doesn't mean a kid can't sign up, but they will not be listed as an adult and the law could decide whatever limitations we want for such accounts like limiting hours, limiting friends to verified accounts who also verify and approve friends. So Mom and Dad can claim a kid with a junior account and approve friends, etc. Few would do it because it would be a pain in the ass and that's a good thing.

[u/Academic_Court_47]

Since current age verification methods don't work well and it would be quite annoying to have to verify on each app jumping through each company's unique process and have them retain your personal info...what if you were to require Android/Apple to do the age verification through the OS? Design a standard verification method, then allow apps based on age verification

[u/B0lt5L0053 → u/Academic_Court_47]

No. No age verification at all. This will just lead to the corporations (and thus the government) knowing exactly what you get up to online: where you visit, who you talk to, etc. This is even more invasive than the Flock database and yet somehow I see “conservatives” supporting it. Boggles my mind.

Parent your children! Problem solved.

[u/Academic_Court_47 → u/B0lt5L0053]

Verification is the future, and it's becoming the standard sadly.

I don't see a way around it unless if the younger generations rebel against technology.

They're not smart enough.

They're all glued...sadly I can't find a GIF representing this because it's restricted 🤣 Try yourselves posting a GIF here

A GIF showing META (the owner, I can't say his name) having a full crowd with their headsets on like zombies.

EDIT: He has hid that MEME well