Except... you don't need an appstore 'account' to install software using 'pkg'. I think that is the essential difference. With apple or android, you need an 'account', and to 'log in', and to provide them with payment details, card number etc. What you have on freebsd or linux is just a software repository, without any user 'accounts'. So I don't think freebsd's pkg system can be said to be an 'appstore' as such. There is no user registration or payment system.
I have an even better solution: my kids grew up not with draconian censorship in the home but with guidance and education.
Ask any Chinese person about that.
As he says, putting it into the o/s is both onerous and unnecessary. Interesting video.
Then we really have to wonder what this is really all about.
As the guy in the video says at the outset, the age checking belongs in the content provider layer, not in the operating system. It appears to be a bunch of content provider companies who have lobbied to get it pushed into the operating system, so they don't have to do it. Why do programs like 'ls' and 'vi' need to know what your age is?
What is the age checking from content provider? You see question "What is your birth year" or "Are you 18+ Yes/No". The user can enter anything and content provider says "I have age verification". At OS level, (probably) there is sysadmin and regular user (under 18 years). If the sysadmin defines that this user is under 18 or 16 years, the OS and all apps know it. And the user has no privileges to change this. Someone will say "but most PC users have admin privileges". The law definition: "Operating system provider" means a person or entity that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system software on a computer. Sounds like the owner of PC is responsible to limit privileges and enter necessary info for users.
So, presumably that means they can charge you with an offence if you entered a false age. That doesn't sound any different to me to entering a false age in a web browser to get access to a porn site. Someone told me a few weeks ago that when they started using face-id to verify age on some porn sites, some school kids in the uk were using photos of the prime minister or other well-known people to get access.
That may be the goal for some companies involved. Because parents are the administrators, and administrators must be trusted to do "the right thing". So, with great sadness, it will be decided that nobody can be the admin on their own system because you can not be trusted. Microsoft is trying very hard to get you into their cloud, with no way back and all access for whoever pays/threatens them. I bet they will love that.
Yes, so you end up being a "service user", like someone using a telephone handset or cable TV, and MS or whoever gets a constant revenue stream, like a phone company. You can't be trusted to have a computer yourself.
Our local TelCo is floating plans to have AI agents in all calls which you can summon by saying "Hello Magenta" which is supposed to help you with matters. I just hope we are not so far up idiocracy creek that people can't vote with their wallet (and law suits, come to think of this). Not long and we will have ads cut into phone calls...
So they could be recording every phone call, or listening for key words like "bombs". It doesn't sound good, in fact it sounds like the end of private and confidential person-to-person voice calls. You will need to be very careful what you say on the phone, with every word being listened to, or rather, someone else (ie, "Magenta") listening in to everything that is said. The only thing left is snail-mail, AFAIK they're not opening letters to read them yet.
Oh they did that, big time, in the railcars carrying mail between BRD/DDR and back, so you could have letters which were opened twice in transit.
If you are parent and want to limit access of your child to adult content, you will enter valid age. If you don't care, then you will give admin rights and leave the child to do whatever wants. The law will not protect everybody but will have noticeable effect. It is like seat belt in car - it will not save you from all accidents but in many cases can save your life.
"They" can charge you if you are the OS provider (sysadmin other than the user) and enter false age for user under 18/16 years. The false age "in a web browser" is entered by the user, not someone else and there is no control. OS provider can be a school with sysadmin and limited accounts for every student.
Yes I can see how it makes some sense in an environment like a school with a sysadmin controlling the kids' computer accounts. I don't really see how it fits with an open source o/s like freebsd or linux, but perhaps some common sense will develop over time in how this law is interpreted and applied. I hope so anyway.
