(Not sure if this is worldwide or only in some countries)
Updating to iOS 26.4DB2 will put your phone into a parental-restricted mode with adult websites blocked on all browsers, warning prompts every time you try to send or receive an explicit image on a messaging app, and all social media apps blocked on the App Store (in Australia)
The settings to disable this mode are locked off until you verify your age either with a credit card, photo ID, or though information Apple already has (like the age of your account).
I’ve been an apple user my entire adult life but this might finally be the thing that forces me off the platform. Do any other long term apple users have some tips about migrating? I’ve heard Ashai Linux is pretty good on mac hardware these days and I’ve been thinking about GrapheneOS for a while.
So now California has a governor pretending to be pro-Palestine to do damage control while signing laws that give Zionist corporations more control over your data and hardware
So what’s actually going on in Cali for them to have such a douchebag governor?
Probably strong influence from corporations, billionaires, other wealthy people, and NIMBYs, along with fearmongering from establishment media to distract from actual problems. And Democrats realizing they can’t win on a pro-genocide platform so now they have to at least pretend to give a shit.
Fuck Trump tho am I rite?
Yes but Trump isn’t the one doing the age verification mandates
This isnt where I parked my car.
If you ever thought Gavin was anti-Trump, I have news for you 😄
Oh he’s anti-Trump alright. But that’s just meaning that he wants to take Trump’s place.
It’s under settings > Apple account (the bubble with your name if you’re signed in) > age range for apps.
The first time you click it you’re asked to go ahead or update your birthday in the account first.
Inside you can pick to always, never or ask first before sharing your age range with some app and it says you can see what apps have asked for your age range.
Can I still pick 1/1/1900 when I update?
Sadly graphene will have to implement age verification too at some point as these laws spread like the ones in California that require ALL os providers including Linux to implement it albeit a pointless user dob input at account creation or be fined into the afterlife
The California law doesn’t require age verification, just a setting on the account that e.g. a parent can set. It’s still stupid, but it’s not what apple is supposedly doing here.
including Linux
How would they enforce that on an open-source platform?
Right, people can just compile their own, which I will absolutely do if need be
By destroying all general-purpose computing available to consumers.
You mean, like…rounding up every computer and burning them?
I really don’t know what you mean by this.
Probably over time. Look at the RAM situation - the fear is this will be the norm. At best.
I mean DRMing and Tivoizing every new computer so that it can’t be rooted or jailbroken and Linux won’t run on it. Requiring a license from the state to have a compiler. You know, The Right to Read or Unauthorized Bread type shit.
Well…I dunno. I don’t think you’re crazy or anything, I’m sure there are some who absolutely do want to do that. But they’ve been trying to get rid of digital piracy for thirty years and haven’t made any headway, so I’m dubious about how well that would work.
Only because, up to this point, we’ve been successful at pushing back against this tyranny. But make no mistake: that is the real goal of this “age verification” bullshit.
Maybe so, but there’s no profit motive for tech companies to aid users with piracy. There is one to continue providing general computing to users. So if we were able to win in the former, the latter should be a cake walk.
Yep, I’m not sure how come everyone thinks graphene will somehow be exempt.
They’re open source and their OEM partner, Lenovo is out of US sphere of influence. They can patch the code when it’s put on the phone, just like how manufacturers modify Android source code.
I hope GrapheneOS makes it easy to avoid and still verify integrity.
If they’re forced to have them in USA and EU, so be it. That’s their policy problem for their people. It’s a win for everyone else.
You can build browsers from source. And import open hardware from China. RISCV is getting close to usable, these days.
You can buy them now, because the US hasn’t banned their import yet, but that’s what these laws will lead to.
When general computing is outlawed, only outlaws will have general computers.
I’ll meet you in the digital underground, netizen.
Yep
Google tried a few years back but there was pushback. Google will slowly boil the frog tho.
I know this isn’t the point of the article, but I’m starting to get really pissy about software updates implementing high-level non-security related changes to my fucking fully paid for device!
It doesn’t do anything but I’m starting to refuse to agree to any new user agreements.
It’s pretty much nothing.
I have 3 different AI agents that were forced onto my phone between Google, Samsung, and Microsoft.
It’ll be baked into the ToS somewhere but I agree it’s bullshit. Years ago I bought a youtuber downloader app (I know I should’ve just used yt-dl) and they released an update that removed support for half the websites and locked them behind a new higher-priced tier. None of it was mentioned in the changelog, just a prompt that came up after you’d installed the new build. I was able to reinstall the previous version and keep using it but I was still so pissed off
Good, I am waiting on my brand new Fairphone 6.
It’s awesome. Welcome!
What…is this shit? What’s the real reason behind this? What senator or governor has a brother in law in the age verification business that got this corruptioned into being a thing all of a sudden?
Surveillance data
It’s not age verification. It’s identity verification.
There is no way to truly verify age without verifying identity. And then all your data can be linked up accurately.
I’m only on 26.3 and I got an iOS age verification popup today when opening an app for hospital/medical stuff. I was able to just close it and continue but it was surprising.
26.3.1 will be the last version without the mandatory verification
I would imagine the health app has multiple age groups. Where as an 18+ can probably save and share medical data to doctors or store it in iCloud, it’s probably illegal some places for minors to have health data being backed up to Apple’s shit.
i accepted this to use a health insurance app. anyway to go back from here?
Yeah, same, but if you close it and continue the app will treat you as if you are a child. You need to explicitly share with the app. What’s being shared seems to be just that you’re an adult or not an adult. It’s basically like an OS level “click here to confirm you are 18.” Except the OS knows your birthday.
Thank you, Tim Apple, for making 2026 the year of the Linux desktop (but not necessarily the Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint desktop).
(but not necessarily the Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint desktop).
Rut. Thanks for ruining my day, sigh. That shit better be a patch away from removal / spoofing…
I’m hoping the implementation is something like ‘check this box to confirm you’re over 18,’ and nothing more.
I have a Macbook air now. Do you recommend me to buy a Lenovo thinkpad? Qubes os is the top pick, I heard.
Linux can run on macbooks, you can probably look up the model online and see if it has good support. I used to run debian on a macbook, though that macbook was from 2013 or something like that.
On the other hand, if you can sell your macbook and get more than a good thinkpad (for your use) is selling for, I would do that.
The air model has a M4 chip. Fedora, Whonix and Quebo doesn’t support… I’ll wait for another months.
I just hope this doesnt impact macos until the end of the year, then I will be able to move to linux on my laptop.
You know they want to impose age verification on Linux as well right? Linux is still the way to go, but I am so not ok with what they ate trying to do.
There is no way thats going to happen. There is way too many os’s the govenment can’t control all of them.
Fuuuuck with apple doing this, I wonder how long we have until this BS enters Android and Linux Kernel.
Lmao good fucking luck enforcing this on Linux. There’s no central authority to handle age verification, and even if there was, it’d take less than a week for someone to make a patched version of whatever tool they use that just… Autoreports that you’re an adult no matter what.
There are many distros. And you can build kernels from source.
Well when we have to comply we can make a build flag everyone shut toggle off…
I suggest simply never complying. Anyone who does is a traitor. This is FOSS, they have no control over us, ZERO power to enforce compliance.
I suggest simply never complying.
While this is the best. it is not feasible. Not many open source projects can just pay millions on fines and not think about it. Idiots making these laws cant enforce it but they will try in the only way they know. Fine and fine and fine untill a project dies.
Something in gut hub can still be “in development.” Nobody has to comply with every regulation before they are finished. Goddamn these vultures. They’ve been nonstop since SOPA and PIPA back in 2010 or whenever.
Forgive my confusion but could they not choose to lock out web traffic without a verification? Lets say your ISP joins and says that you need x bullshit token from the government to us it, then what?
How would they have to pay any fines if they simply say we are no longer for use in xyz place doing age verification?
Second, how would payment be enforced when there is no organization to fine?
i use fedora asahi remix with kde on M1, so far it’s great except the battery life is not as good as in macos but i don’t care … finally i escaped the shitty glass design among other shitty things apple does… and have been using Grephene for more than a year, It’s honestly the most stable, seamless OS i tried, the kind of OS that just works and doesn’t annoy you. imo even better than ios !
Is it regional? Am I safe to update in Europe?
From what I’ve read online it’s going to be worldwide
Well, my 2G Nokia candy bar phone will come in handy
For what?//can’t even make a call on it as 2g is shut off or well be Shirley depending whee you live.
I wonder if this is why they’ve been so forceful in moving capable devices to iOS 26.
Has anyone checked to see if this exists in iOS 18.7.7 or 18.8 betas?
