Making content restrictions easier for parents to implement would help a ton — like being able to block all sites in a browser and create a whitelist of the ones kids are allowed to access. Similar whitelisting should be available and easy to implement for YouTube and social media. Having to individually block each site/video/profile you don’t want your kid to access is a futile game of whack a mole.
A more sensible approach to this law would be to require adult sites to include a clear marker in either an HTTP header or an HTML meta tag. For example:
This would allow locally run browser content blockers to automatically detect such sites without blocking them individually, and it would be trivial for site operators to implement. Since it would be mandated by law, sites that refuse to comply could be subject to legal action.
Of course, this would still rely on parents taking the basic step of setting up a content blocker before allowing their children unrestricted internet access.
But you can do this now: I made this for my sisters kids and my friend his Alzheimer dad years ago. Agree: its not mainstream or installable by just anyone, but if you are on HN it will take an old laptop with linux and chromium and a few hours.
I'm able to do this using the Google Family controls for my kids' mobiles. I've tied it down so much that they use them rarely and for specific purposes.
This is already fairly trivial to do. There are many DIY and commercial off-the-shelf solutions. The problem with all client-side blocking is that it can be bypassed by just...using a different computer. People who want this legislation want restrictions to apply everywhere, not just on parent-managed devices, so shifting the discussion to client-side blocks just makes our arguments trivial to dismiss as irrelevant.
