[notatoad]

i'm surprised to see this suggestion highly upvoted, because this is the solution that usually makes hacker news the angriest.

in reality this cannot be just a simple plain text header. that's way too easily forged and will not satisfy any of the parties pushing for age verification. the "device verifies your age" model means hardware attestation, so the source of that age verification can sign a cryptographically secure promise that the device software has not been modified in a way that would allow this header to be forged.

the app stores might be a less than ideal place to implement age verification, but it lets regulators sidestep all the messy issues around a distinction between device owner and device user.

[advisedwang]

I'm advocating for services being made to respect what the device owners decide, not that devices be made to request what the services decide.

Of course, you are probably correct about the political infeasability of what I want, and are correct that this can get twisted into the exact opposite of what a just law would do.

[bluebarbet]

Punctuation would make your ideas easier to understand.