Linux distros without age verification will be prohibited from distributing to regions where this law is enacted. Of course, circumventing the law is also possible, but that leaves either the project – or you – open to prosecution. As I said, your fight is with the politicians pushing through this ignorant law, not with the people, companies, or projects that are forced to comply.
Imagine being so horrible at your job as a “journalist” or an editor or a publication that you would allow an article like this to be written under your name or publication without ever mentioning the fact that age verification is being pushed by governments, not phone and computer companies (they are trying to fight its implementation), and that it is equally coming to ALL platforms (yes, even Linux) – as required by law. If you want to fight this ridiculous age verification shit, petition (and vote out) your government. I would also argue that this author and publication should be permanently blacklisted for purposely publishing this obviously biased and misleading misinformation.
Also, if you press the power button 5 times on iPhone it does a hard lock requiring the passcode to unlock.
“I have nothing to hide therefore you have no reason to look”
I’m currently in Asia and – in this country at least – you are basically required to have a smart phone to do anything. Credit cards don’t exist. And they use QR payments for most things. So that implies a camera and a banking app (for your bank). Many places don’t accept cash anymore (!) - I don’t really get how they can do that because not everyone has a smart phone (poor people (obviously) & tourists (not even allowed to get bank accounts here) come immediately to mind — of which there are millions of both). I think so far it’s not a big deal because these people just spend their money elsewhere, but I worry this will become entrenched.
Anyway, I tried “dumb phoning” my iPhone and there’s just way too many things I rely on daily that require a smart phone: paying by QR code, banking, international banking, translating, navigation, ride booking, accommodation booking, messaging on iMessage, Line, Messenger (almost everyone in this country uses the last 2). When travelling in a foreign country, these things aren’t really optional. If I can’t pay for a bus ticket or food, I could be really screwed.
Now you might say some of things in my list are doable without apps; like accommodation booking… sure. But even if you find a place old skool style, how do you contact them? Most don’t have web pages, they use Facebook pages. And the contact info is usually a Line or Messenger id. Even if somehow you managed to find a phone number, they are unlikely to speak English. I’m old enough to remember travelling before the internet and honestly it was great and worked well, but that was because everyone was on the same footing. We’ve lost that and I actually think it’s much more difficult now.
I’ve gotten rid of most social media (except fediverse) which has helped my screen time a lot, but I think going back to a feature phone is, unfortunately, impossible here. I do hope that they see how economically unfair requiring a smart phone is though and at least pass some laws that require shops to take cash payments (last I heard these laws did exist in the West).
This is what I’ve been doing for years - since the Apple TV came out, actually. I detest “smart” TVs, but the world has decided that’s my only option now. The first thing I do with a new Tv (I actually just upgraded mine recently) is disable the internet and turn off absolutely everything I can in whatever shit OS they are using. I plug in the Apple TV, set the input to that, and that’s it. It just works™️
I’m very concerned about privacy issues generally but am pretty comfortable with Apple’s stated and perceived privacy. If you’re paying for quality hardware and services through them, they have little incentive to sell you out – unlike pretty much every other tech company out there (I’m looking at you, Google).
The Apple TV is wicked fast (faster than any other TV OS or box I’ve ever seen) and has absolutely zero ads, zero cruft, and requires zero maintenance. If you are at all in the Apple universe with other devices, it’s perfectly seamless and tough to beat. I highly recommend it.
I know a bunch of Android/linux/Windows/Whatever-heads are gonna jump in and list a bunch of features or customizations the Apple to doesn’t have or can’t do… ya, that may be true but if that’s important to you… then don’t fucking buy it. Not everyone has the same use case as you. When I want to watch TV, I wanna watch TV – not update my Linux distro or whatever else I’ve hodge-podged together. I’ve built my own HTPCs and PVRs and, frankly, know this stuff inside-out. For me, and probably millions of others, nothing comes close to the Apple TV in terms of price, time commitment, simplicity, functionality AND privacy.
In what way? I find it exactly the same as Signal but without needing to disclose my phone number (and therefore more anonymous). The user experience, imho, is the same.
Session is very good and doesn’t require a phone number (like Signal).
GrapheneOS said they won’t implement age verification. That not them “being brave”, that’s them literally doing nothing at all. “Brave” would be getting the governments implementing this shit to change the laws.