(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.

  • doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml
    4·
    4 hours ago

    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.

  • starblursd@lemmy.zipEnglish
    141·
    18 hours ago

    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

    • Corngood@lemmy.ml
      6·
      14 hours ago

      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.

      • 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        10 hours ago

        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.

  • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    27·
    16 hours ago

    They’re going to burn this in all the way from the sub-microprocessor DRM/TPM to the browser, aren’t they?

    • eleitl@lemmy.zip
      1·
      4 hours ago

      You can build browsers from source. And import open hardware from China. RISCV is getting close to usable, these days.

      • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        4 hours ago

        You can buy them now, because the US hasn’t banned their import yet, but that’s what these laws will lead to.

        • eleitl@lemmy.zip
          5·
          3 hours ago

          When general computing is outlawed, only outlaws will have general computers.

          I’ll meet you in the digital underground, netizen.

      • toastal@lemmy.ml
        10·
        14 hours ago

        Google tried a few years back but there was pushback. Google will slowly boil the frog tho.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    24·
    18 hours ago

    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?

  • kinkles@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    18 hours ago

    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.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      18 hours ago

      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.

    • favoredponcho@lemmy.zip
      1·
      12 hours ago

      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.

    • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
      4·
      15 hours ago

      (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…

      • TiredTiger@lemmy.ml
        3·
        13 hours ago

        I’m hoping the implementation is something like ‘check this box to confirm you’re over 18,’ and nothing more.

    • Goldenring@lemmy.ca
      2·
      12 hours ago

      I have a Macbook air now. Do you recommend me to buy a Lenovo thinkpad? Qubes os is the top pick, I heard.

    • AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip
      281·
      10 hours ago

      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.

      • quips@slrpnk.net
        20·
        12 hours ago

        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.

        • kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          122·
          10 hours ago

          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.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    14 hours ago

    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?

    • freedickpics@lemmy.mlOP
      191·
      16 hours ago

      I mean some shit you find online is pretty grim but when I was a kid I knew the internet was for adults and didn’t expect everything to be catered to me. Now the status quo seems to be “every website must be kid/advertiser friendly and PG13 by default, everything else must be locked behind a verification prompt”. How did we get here?

      • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
        16·
        15 hours ago

        We let 5 companies control the internet. Instead of being the distributed thing it was dreamed up to be we allowed it to consolidate.

        • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
          6·
          13 hours ago

          And it’s not like servers have gotten harder to run! Pirates serve terabytes of data that’s straight-up illegal! Your fuckin’ commercial connection should be plenty for any damn thing you want.

  • Octagon9561@lemmy.ml
    225·
    16 hours ago

    If the West follows into the footsteps of the propaganda they are spreading against China, I’d rather go live in China because at least there people don’t live paycheck to paycheck despite working multiple jobs. Every accusation against China was a confession.

  • shrek_is_love@lemmy.ml
    53·
    19 hours ago

    When I first decided to switch to Linux, I started exclusively using apps that were available on Linux. This way I was able to gradually transition my workflows one app at a time without any rush. When I was ready to install Linux, I did it on a new computer so I still had access to everything on the old computer and there was no risk of going computer-less if the installation went sideways.

    Also, keep in mind that Asahi only works on M1 and M2 Macs. (If you have an old Intel Mac, you can just run normal Linux without Asahi)

    Oh and Veronica Explains has a great video about her experience with Asahi.

    • freedickpics@lemmy.mlOP
      141·
      19 hours ago

      This might be a stupid question but when using ashai can you run any normal linux software or does it have to be specifically built for arm64/apple silicon?

      • snek_boi@lemmy.ml
        102·
        18 hours ago

        I hope someday any normal Linux software will be usable in Apple hardware. Unfortunately, there are hurdles.

        One of the biggest hurdles was getting code accepted into the Linux kernel.

        This became very frustrating for the previous Asahi Linux lead developer. He would push upstream code and the Linux developers would not accept it.

        Why didn’t they accept it? Because it was written in memory-safe Rust and not in memory-unsafe C. Old Linux developers don’t want to deal with Rust. So they just refuse to include Asahi Linux updates into normal Linux software.

        • cole@lemdro.idEnglish
          5·
          11 hours ago

          you’re losing a lot of nuances here, just want to add for other readers.

          there was and are good reasons for why code wasn’t accepted

  • sen@lemmy.zip
    9·
    3 hours ago

    Wait, send explicit images? I’m not a child, I get that on these platforms my privacy is pretty well gone, but is it explicitly known (confirmed from the source) that these companies scan your images too?

    That feels extra fucked up. Like "hold on a sec bucko let me check this photo you’re trying to send real quick to make sure it’s not titties "