The headline is a bit misleading is it not? There is no evidence of children's data being used unlawfully. (I mean there might I don't know what counts as "unlawful") This is just a fine for Reddit not to follow UKs dystopian ideas in time.
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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They were relying on users to click I am definitely over 18. So there is by definition no possible way to know if children's data was being misused except to the extent it obviously was.
Age verification should have been a device side thing. I should be able to set up my kids phone / tablet with their date of birth and if they're not old enough then they can't access certain content. That way the only person who needs to verify the age of someone is me.
My ISP shipped with age restriction on by default, (personally I think that's a stupid default but that's a separate issue), but although annoying it was easy to get rid of because I'm the account holder. I didn't have to scan my ID though.
Anyway we all know this has been nothing to do with kids anyway.
This is about GDPR. A German court recently made a similar judgment wrt TikTok, but that is being appealed.
A silly noble once said,
“If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class.”
Business criminals need to be barred from business, and criminal profits returned to the public.
Spez is such a colossal Zuckerberg-wannabe piece of shit. I don't think any site has fallen farther than Reddit has. What a waste.
*farther
They perma banned me :( bunch of power tripping people over there
Who, the government Reddit
This headline is about them not complying with age verification, which is something I'd agree with. Fuck reddit overall but not their fault in this regard
Really waiting for the mass exodus from reddit. It seems like it's gotten pretty shitty over there the past year or so.
aswell as Youtube,Discord and Twitch
it kinda sucks tho that all my google searches for tech support I have to put site:reddit.com at the end because the rest of the web is shit for support
You can thank walled gardens like Discord for that.
software projects run by gamerz: hosted on discord
also software projects run by gamerz: why is the support channel the same 3 questions over and over again!?
idk, maybe it's that you host your software support on a platform without discoverability of solutions?
aT lEaSt It'S nOt A fOrUm
As much as I hate Reddit this is just continuation of the UK government steamrolling and destroying the free Internet, ruining the adult experience.
One of the wonders of the Internet was that it was wildly unregulated - if you wanted it and you could disable safesearch you could get it, with the caveat of ISP-enforced content locks on all mobile data subscriptions under the name of a legal child (under 18), workplace and school security and filters, unremovable Safesearch on most search engines etc. Broadband required an adult, who in turn could activate parental controls. I couldnt wait until I turned 18 so I could finally access many sites for porn, news, gaming, forums and anything containing keywords without being blocked. I had a list of proxies for bypassing school filters.
In short there is significant existing protection in place and we know that this is simply more evidence of Orwellian enforcement.
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Oh I'm sorry, which government demanded age checks which made kids give away their data to check their ages? Oh yeah.
Cost of doing business to them. Make fines actually hurt and then maybe something will change.
Or just prosecute them criminally, like they do with the pesants
Because of content. I still can't find woodworking, amarthome, soccer or F1 content or lemmy, just to name a few. I lurk in incognito mode on reddit for that, so the ads don't have any data about me.
/u/Spez (creator of /r/jailbait) should be in the car next to Andrew and on the gallows next to Trumpstein.
It was created by Violentacrez, not spez.
Prior to late 2012, it was possible to make someone a moderator of a subreddit without their consent, which was sometimes done as a joke or harassment. That's why spez was briefly a moderator of r/jailbait.
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I'm not defending the guy but wasn't it that a mod of that subreddit added him as a mod as a joke? I don't think spez created it.
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Garbage fine by tyrannical government trying to police what you do online. Stop age verification!
This will surely stop reddit in it's tracks!
Cheering on websites getting fined for the reason of internet censorship. I know Spez is a prick but I don’t want the UK cracking down on internet privacy.
We must protest against the labour party’s corruption.
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I stopped. Kind got forced to but I’m happier for it lol
This seems like one of those cases where you wish both sides could lose. Reddit are up to no good, but lack of identity document demands isn't it.
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