alt Hacker NewsI suspect this is one of the less nefarious reasons age verification is getting pushed so hard. 2026: you need a webcam to prove your age. 2030: we know you have a webcam because you verified your age. It must be left on with echo cancellation and background noise suppression disabled so we can hear the ad we are playing.
<insert obvious ways in which this will be misused here>
that's the thing about advertisers. people who don't want to see them get very good at ignoring them, and finding ways to prevent them entirely via technical means.
this means that advertisers must constantly move the "we won't cross this" line further and further into absurdity. it will never stop. not ever, not so long as people have things to sell.
i hope i'm dead when ad viewing only counts when you buy the advertised product.
"Thank you for your Twitch subscription. You've used all of your paid time, and can no longer view streams. But, good news, buy 1 product advertised to you in the next 15 minutes and you'll get another 24 hours of streaming!"
then watch as they increase the number of products you must buy while decreasing the number of hours you get from it.
it will never ever stop.
advertising should be illegal or be highly regulated. the arms race between viewer and advertiser will never stop until one or both of those things happen.