JEMC said:
Can someone explain to me why all those sites, and now apparently also game stores, need to have their own way to verify the user's age? Has no one thought about doing it at the OS level so users only have to go through that once instead of giving away their information to God knows how many places? |
As far as I know, based on what little I've heard, the UK half-assed its age restriction law and refused to do anything to ensure age verifications are done sensibly or in a unified manner. They just mandated age restrictions and didn't do much more.
Also, it can't be done at OS level only, because websites don't have access to the OS. If you want OS support, you need browsers aboard too. Now you need to get all major operating systems and browsers aboard, so have fun trying to standardize that! All in all, this seems like a terrible mess, and I'm not sure anyone is sure of the best way to handle the whole age verification thing, especially in a privacy-aware manner. Or maybe some parties are aware of a way, but I bet that's not what's going to happen, at least any time soon.
