(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.
I’ve been an apple user my entire adult life
It’s time to grow up.
You think this isn’t coming to other devices? Google will presumably add this to Android and apps will follow suit by looking to the OS to verify your age so other forks will probably have to add it. Linux on smartphones is dead in the water so what’s the alternative?
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?
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.
Surveillance data
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.
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?
It’s gotta be built for arm64
Can you use the makefile and compile?
I’m pretty sure you can. I never did because I ended up having to go back to macos on the machine I had.
Yes, you can. It’s just an ARM64 computer. The only special consideration is that the kernel uses 16K pages instead of 4K pages, but that’s not something I’ve encountered problems with.
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.
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
Lame - never updating my stuff and will move off smartphones.
Not buying a car made after 2018.
Not buying electronics made after 2025.
Simple as.
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?
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.
Right, people can just compile their own, which I will absolutely do if need be
Compile it on what tho?
Already running Linux, so Linux. And they’re not going to be able to stop people sharing their compiled images
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.
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.
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.
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.
i accepted this to use a health insurance app. anyway to go back from here?
26.3.1 will be the last version without the mandatory verification
This is insane. They have to view your images to deem of they are explicit…
Basically a year away from a universal internet ID that will track all movements and can be restricted if your government doesn’t like you.
Apple already views your images for child porn.
If you read the article, they don’t.
Who was the guy several years ago who was charged with child pornography for receiving a pic of his infant son’s rash for the doctor on his phone? Was that not iCloud via Apple scanning for questionable images?
Something I heard on the old OSINT podcast years ago.
Apple also said its anti-CSAM tool will not allow the company to see or scan a user’s photo album. It will only scan photos that are shared on iCloud.
The system will look for matches, securely on the device, based on a database of hashes of known CSAM images provided by child safety organisations.
Scanning yes, viewing no.
I remember hearing about that though. On first glance that shouldn’t be possible with what apple says they do. I feel like there was another detail I can’t recall that made more sense of it, but maybe not.
Hey degen, I’ve got your journal in my hands right now. It’s ok though, I promise only to look at the cover and not read it. You’re cool with that right?
They probably do it for people like Donald and all his Epstein friends to save and pre order.
Has this expanded from iCloud uploads? It’s crazy how using a device now requires users to allow company full access yo everything.
I guess I never believed it was limited to iCloud.
Do they though? As a side note, I read the documentation for the proposed system of scanning and it was actually really well designed for privacy. The problem was if they were forced to expand the scope to include other material such as, for example, proof of protest against a regime.
Com’n. All loss of privacy is a foot on the door to access more.
Wanted to view*
To get a sim card in Australia you need to show identification. There is no anonymity.
For a phone sim…of course you do. I mean they would know who pays the bill anyway right? Unless you have a phone company that takes bitcoin or cash only.
Phone companies are required to collect and retain IDing info of customers to activate a phone number in Australia. There’s no way around it unfortunately
This also means they are tracking all the websites you are going to.
They already are. Well depends on who they are I guess but someone is.
This would be pre vpn or anything else you could do to protect your privacy - if it’s at the OS level it’s before the browser and VPN level
That’s not happening now, but it’s the only way the are gonna be able to to check content to make sure “ the children are safe “
That was already happening, as the option to block sending and receiving of such content was able to be turned on in your screen time settings, and you could mandate it for your children by managing your kids accounts on the family organizers device. If someone is under the age of 13 they are required to be on a family share, and if you don’t have “Ask to Buy” enabled, from what I know you won’t get a refund for anything with the excuse my kid bought this without permission.
Overall it all seems logical, but in those scenarios the ages and requirements are mostly all controlled by the parent.
Scary. I had no idea it went beyond the iCloud scans. I avoided the cloud after that celebrity image leak.
Guess we might see a rise in offline or dumb devices. I wonder how this will affect other nations that already have restrictive internet access. If the
USWest becomes more locked down where would free and accessible info go?
I find it odd to protect children they will stalk the hell out of us but won’t arrest known pedophiles …
I hate the world
Better to just hate the whole Epstein Class. They trash the world for everyone else…
We’ve had a name for them for the last 200 years: the capitalist class, or to be more precise, the haute bourgeoisie. The 1% of the 1%.
the haute bourgeoisie. The 1% of the 1%.
The painful irony being that the bourgeoisie were still below the nobles
Also they’ll deny trans kids puberty blockers which are proven to be safe and reversible, and the alternative creates harm.
And they’ll censor the internet for ‘children’ (a 17 year old is not a child) to prevent them finding community, support or education outside their IRL religious and harmful bubbles.
It was never about actually protecting children
It’s not to protect children though. It’s for political surveillance.
Exactly. Governments around the world, including the U.S., of course, have made it crystal clear through their actions that they don’t give a fuck about protecting children.
If everyone voting for these age requirements don’t also vote to require you to use an ID to unlock the safety on a gun or remove a knife from the knife rack, they aren’t voting on this to protect the children.
Knives and guns need age verification before someone seeing Kate Upton showing her breasts.
Im going side with none of it needs age verification, and all of it needs parental guidance
At least knives have a use outside of killing
In America.
Yeah apparently it’s fine for them to fuck kids but too immoral to risk kids seeing people fucking.
Alright, time to go to a different phone. Gonna buy Fairphone tomorrow.
(Or Motorola, if it’s true that it’s gonna have GrapheneOS on it).
I just installed Graphene OS on my Pixel 6 yesterday and it runs like a champ. You should be able to pick up a used Pixel 6 or newer for pretty cheap as another option
Or Motorola, if it’s true that it’s gonna have GrapheneOS on it
It will likely be on a specific future model
I don’t give a shit what children see.
They’ll live.
Stop spying on adults.
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?
It’s just a facade to justify mining more data for power, influence and money.
Simple as that.
We let 5 companies control the internet. Instead of being the distributed thing it was dreamed up to be we allowed it to consolidate.
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.
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.
After commercial OS have age verification they will remove it from the programs because the age was already verified, right? (Padme asking Anakin)
Nope, the CA/CO legislation requires that all applications utilize the OS-level age verification API!
Doesn’t that mean that the application will not have to do the verification itself, but just ask the OS?
prompts every time you try to send or receive an explicit image on a messaging app
Does this mean they caved in to the UK’s client-side scanning stuff after all?
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.
