Apple iOS now requires age verification to access websites it deems 18+. Not even using another browser like Firefox works, it’s blocked at the OS level.
I was putting off switching to Graphene or e/os until prices improve, but looks like my hand is forced.
Edit: VPN doesn’t even work because Apple knows your GPS location. I haven’t tried location spoofing yet because that’s a bit more annoying to setup.
FYI, there are no alternative browsers on iOS. Every single one is Safari with a skin, even Firefox. This is also a requirement by Apple, and one of the many reasons why I’ll never own an iPhone. It’s my device; I should be allowed to use any browser I want, install anything I want.
What the fuck? How is that legal.
It’s not…in the EU. So they lift the restriction there and there only. It’s clearly not a technical limitation, just greed.
Agreed to it in the EULA (most likely)
Yep, thats one reason why i went to e/OS. Never went back.
e/os here. A few months in on a Fairphone. Very happy so far
Im using it on the Teracube 2s (2025). Kinda laggy phone but very decent.
How does that work? Do you have any links with more information?
I use Orion browser on an iPhone. I’m not sure what to search to find info about how this all works on that browser. All my searches are returning are sites that compare features between the two. I’m not a tech person (unless you ask non-Millennials), and this is the first time I’ve heard that every iOS browser is actually Safari in disguise. I need to know more!
due to Apple’s platform rules, every browser that runs on iOS is WebKit-based, so there are few opportunities for competitive differentiation outside of interface elements.
“Even in the EU and Japan, where Apple is now required to allow browser vendors to use their own engines, the barriers it has put in place ensure browser vendors are prevented from porting their own engines to iOS. Given that Apple has now had more than two years to produce a compliant solution, the European Commission needs to open a specification proceeding to instruct Apple, in precise terms, how these barriers must be removed.”
While I still don’t fully understand what it means by “engines,” that certainly explains why it takes fucking forever for webpages to load on my phone.
Thank you for providing more info!
This has actually not been the case, in most regions, since iOS 17.4. Chrome and Firefox now use Blink and Gecko, respectively. There are exceptions where WebKit is still to only engine including the EU.
You sure about that?
Then why is Firefox on my girlfriend’s iPhone 15 Plus very obviously Safari?
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How have we allowed this. Theres no going back ever. Welcome to dystopia.
Thank Australia first. Apple is just complying with their rules at this point. Not that they mind imo, but still, it comes from the government overreach.
Edit: Reading some other comments that I might be wrong about the laws. Still something to bring to your lawmakers as an issue needing addressed. Apple effectively telling the Australian people what they can and cannot see.
Though it does look like it might stem from the social media restrictions put in place.
Australian restrictions for social media and pornography do not require OS level enforcement, it applies to the sites to restrict access. OS level enforcement has come from several US state legislation and EU/UK push. Google/ Android will likely be rolling it out soon (this is part of Google enforcing stricter app store developer requirements) and technically Windows and Mac should be pushing it at the desktop level.
Ewwww, do not like that! But also even if it doesn’t originate here, Australia is the test bed for this junk to see if it flys with the people. So far most of us have just laid down in front of the steam roller for “SECURITY!!!”!!"
Real question is, who in their right mind uses anything from Apple?
Can confirm. That mind ain’t right
Blame your own country for making it the law?
This ain’t an Apple thing. It’s an Australia thing.
I don’t think this is a law. Android and Windows don’t do this for example
I had this pop up personally, thankfully my Apple account itself is old enough to vote - so that was the extent of the age verification.
Still doesn’t bode well for younger generations though.
Those AI thumbnails are as offensive as fuck, I’m gonna block that shit on all my devices
Maybe Apple was protecting me all along lol - this site isn’t safe even for adults
Looks like Australia might be doing OP a favor in this case.
Never have I ever paid my eyes upon a website so catered to boomers.
Toss that shit out the window!
I wanted to rewatch a theater play filmed in the 80’s on YouTube. This time it ask for my birth date to confirm I’m an adult. I clicked the button wondering which birth date I could have used on this account then it crashed. Tried thrice more, crashed each time.
We living in a decade where the quality of internet service decreased in a obvious way. At the same time, we should have more restriction and start paying for it. Big tech should at least be consistent.
That’s… crazy. Though, they do this with discord too on iOS.
Is it possible to circumvent it with VPN?
VPN with custom DNS didn’t work. Firefox didn’t work either. It was an OS level A.I. block or something.
GPS spoofing might work, but I can’t be bothered trying right now
Also a little bit annoying to setup but, what about an ssh tunnel using a SOCKS proxy? Although, I don’t know if it’s possible to do it on iOS, I’ve done it on macOS to bypass my university’s blocked websites
How about a different web browser?
gemini:// and gopher:// browsers work I suppose… but they’re not really typical web browsers haha. I tried a bunch but they are all blocked. Brave, Vivaldi, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, DDG. Nothing would let it through. Firefox said an interesting error message though.
The URL was blocked by a content filter: WebKitErrorDomain
On ios there are no “diferente browsers”. They are safari in a trenchcoat, because apple doesn’t allow other browser engines.
For gOS just get a pixel second hand. Orthe new motorla rip off.
The new pixel is a downgrade from the 10. 7 and upare perfectly modern and capable for what anyone wans that isnt an AI tech brat.
I was looking at the 8 tbh
Ideal
Laughs on vpns
VPNs don’t work, the block works by GPS coordinates
why can you not spoof your GPS then?
you can on Android.
I’m not sure how that would work on an iPhone but I’m sure it’s possible with a bit of technical know-how.
I t comes down to, what does apple require as verification process? And how do they store the data?
They wanted my driver’s licence, shared with third parties. They claim it’s deleted shortly after upload, but I don’t really trust it to be honest… maybe they do, but they won’t even tell me who the third parties are
Given the track record other companies have with accidently on purpose not deleting such files, then getting hacked and the files stolen, I really wouldn’t trust it at all. Plus, fuck age verification anyway.
There’s not even a good reason to do that and upload it, you could have a local only scan and then pass along a check mark only, like they say how biometric thumbprint works.
I didn’t have to share any data to get verified, my account is old enough for a free pass. It also only tells websites: “user is 18+” so there’s not a lot of information getting passed along.
I read Apples documentation on it a fair while ago but as far as not telling the world who you are it’s far from the worst idea while still complying with local laws.
This isn’t required under Australian law, Apple can fuck right off.
Yeah these guys are overcomplying and promoting censorship. Never seen a big tech company take this stance. Fuck them. Post Covid big tech is shady as.
All Apple had to do was age verify their App Store. And on that they had the nerve to force it a month before quietly releasing a on device facial age estimation option rather than just rely on id or credit card. Forcing many to use id/credit card when esafety would have been lenient enough to wait.
Big tech has always been shady. Lockdowns just provided an easy powergrab and the means yo take the power without having to hide it.
Post Covid big tech is shady as.
what? since the 1990s at least.
Never seen a big tech company take this stance
Optus blocked 4chan after the Christchurch massacre. Nobody asked them to.
This looks like it’s on another level though. That site is tame. Totally SFW.
The only people who can control any apple device are the people working the back end of Apple’s ecosystem
Did you know they already did that in the UK?..even though they weren’t obligated to.
You can’t VPN to the UK, Australia or any of the EU countries anymore because of this crap. And in case anyone hasn’t figured it out yet, it’s not about protecting kids from anything. It’s about unmasking everyone online and the next step will be digital ID and CBDC
What do you mean? That I can’t set up something like tailscale on iPhone? Or can I set it up as long as it’s in the same country and I can’t set up a makeshift VPN service by routing my traffic through a VPS in a different country?
in china? probably not on an apple device of any kind. In the UK? maybe, but if the apple device was first booted within the UK, apple might remove the software from your device. That’s something apple can do by the way, they can just take things off your device if they don’t want you to have them
Maybe internet content will improve as a result. In my early life I was hard pro anonymous internet access, but the way social media content is impacting liberal societes I suspect now that was an error.
Mean internet comments with no one’s real name attached to them means you have a free and open internet for everyone. The solution to bad speech is good speech, not censorship and certainly not mandatory self-doxing
forcing everyone on the internet to show ID is a huge cybersecurity risk. What with databreaches and all. Literally every ID verifier who said they delete the IDs once the account is verified was proven to be lying after they got hacked
What is apple’s endgame of unmasking everyone online? Better ad placement? Hardly seems worth it.
Or does apple really have interest in allowing governments around the world to track and identify people who view certain content or say certain things?
Like how does this benefit apple?
Better ad placement.
Apples ad department hasnt been a very good money maker, so Apple has been doing everything they can to just block competition on Apple devices to make sure that they could be the best ad company for Apple users. They block all they can from other companies but then track the hell out of you so they can serve ads to you that are more valuable to marketers.
They get away with it mostly by claiming they are protecting their users privacy, when its really to block competition. Its quite an eye opener when you read all of Apples privacy policies.
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It’s to combat bots and AI scrapers. It’s expensive tracking every bot and scraper out there. They created a problem. Now they want us to fix it for them so their money printer doesn’t slow down.
it benefits them because they get to continue having customers in dictatorships like china, the UK, australia and the EU.
they’re bending over and pulling that fascist dick up their asses so they can keep operating in as many countries as possible.
Before you say it. I’ll ask this…What do YOU call it when you get arrested for words that aren’t threats?
Calling the EU a dictatorship is outstandingly uneducated. Like, stone age levels of primitively stupid.
No free speech, Forced age verification, chat control. They made it illegal to run your AC during a heatwave.
Do you really need more than that?
Freedom of expression is a EU law, age verification is stupid but isn’t enacted, the current chat control version is stupid but doesn’t force anything, and no it’s not illegal to run an AC you dumbass
Freedom of expression is a EU law
Only if they agree with what you have to say
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China will be interesting with this ridiculous precedent Apple are self inflicting on themselves.
They already put censorship into every china-based apple device over 10 years ago
Wow by censorship do you mean Apple literally enforce the Great Firewall blocklist at device level? If so wild.
Permits to build factories, datacenters, other infrastructure. Better chances of striking deals. Being considered as a supplier when time comes to upgrade state phones and IT.
Lots of potential benefits of licking the boot.
That’s why people need to be against censorship, in principle. If people’s only objection is that it ‘isn’t implemented correctly’, people will just try and they again to implement it “correctly”. We need to squash it down from the start.
Censorship just hurts marginalised youth, especially trans youth since HRT is so age sensitive. And you cannot trust parents to safeguard their kids, no, just because you gave birth to someone does not mean you know what’s best for them, crazy ik
