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These are not mistakes.

These are not implementation errors or miscommunication between different business units.

What you are witnessing is an intentional setting of a revenue dial to the maximum allowable setting that still permits the original sale.



This is why you have government regulation. It’s not perfect, but at least a government is accountable to something other than a profit motive.


In the US, the government is expressly prohibited from regulating video games sales on the basis of content, per the First Amendment (with an exception existing for pornography). This was the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Entertainment Merchant’s Association (2011).


And that's the problem. The US Constitution isn't Moses' 10 Commandments chiselled in stone. It can be changed and improved. To quote Jeff Jefferies: "That's why it's called an AMENDMENT!".

The fact that the US government is frozen in amber overall will be the downfall of the US.


It's not set in stone, its just used as an excuse. Or a thought terminating cliche.

From OP:

> the First Amendment (with an exception existing for pornography)

The text is not

> Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, except for showing boobs on TV, which would be a heinous crime and worthy of deportation

There are many exceptions to "freedom of speech".


A console is a computer controlled by a corporation. No other result could be expected.


[flagged]


A solution that works for nerd parents can be sold by those nerd parents to non-nerd parents if the platform wasn't specifically designed to prevent it.

Open hardware and free software is not about nerds.


> Let’s not make this into a nerd culture war thing about, what?

I'm not making it into anything, I'm just identifying the root cause.


Well, the sale was to me. The kid came later. :-)


> These are not implementation errors or miscommunication between different business units.

I don't think the companies such as Google*, Microsoft, Valve or Nintendo** have a Child Safety business unit.

If they did, the software they produce would work and I would be able set some sane settings once when creating a group of users which contain children.

What I am experiencing is user hostility when trying to limit who can chat or influence my children. The UI is usually horrible and some devices have no way of limiting or whitelisting what games can be played by children.

* Fuck you for not requiring TVs to implement the features required to use child users on TVs.

** Fuck you for making the of doing anything on the switch related to child-profiles a horrible experience.


They may not label the BU as such, but they certainly have policies on these types of interactions...sometimes abhorrently so: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2025/11/22/meta-strike-p...




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