Their actual blog ( https://zed.dev/blog/terms-update ) says the age requirement is only for their AI service (still not the best wording but a little clearer):
> Age requirement. You must be 18 or older to use Zed’s AI-enabled software-as-a-service offering (the “Service").
You must be 18+ years old to use a Raspberry Pi.
Time to short Raspberry Pi stock then.
> Our email yesterday was imprecise relative to our actual new Terms. To be specific:
> You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service (Zed’s AI-enabled software-as-a-service offering, including features like account creation/sign in, Zed Free and Zed Pro, and collaboration). See https://zed.dev/terms#21-eligibility. We set the threshold at 18 due to children's data privacy obligations under COPPA, equivalent international frameworks, and an increasing number of state and regional laws that extend protections to anyone under 18. Those regulations require parental consent verification, age-gated data handling, and separate retention policies for minors. Building and maintaining that infrastructure is a real cost for a small team, and getting it wrong carries regulatory risk. Setting the line at 18 lets us maintain a single privacy framework for all account holders without carve-outs.
> Zed's Software (open source code editing software) is governed by our open source licenses. In cases where the open source license can govern, it will over the Terms. See https://zed.dev/terms#24-restrictions.
That's the same bunch that starts a software project by installing K8s.
Not that I have a problem with the LLM stuff, I just use the LLM in a shell and then use Zed to fix the problems in the output.
I had expected this to be about their multi-user editing and chat features.
I mostly agree with you, mostly because I don't like being tracked, and I don't like the surveillance state.
But, I mean, kids probably shouldn't be looking at porn. Arguably no one should be viewing porn but it's probably especially bad for young, developing minds to be watching that kind of stuff, and if we agree that kids shouldn't be watching porn then maybe we should be doing a cursory effort to make it so they're not?
It's easy to say "no it's the parents' responsibility", but let's be honest with ourselves. My parents tried child blocks for me so that I won't look at unsavory websites when I was thirteen, and those worked for about twenty minutes until I figured out how to get around them, and eventually reformatted my hard drive with OpenSUSE so my parents wouldn't be able to try again. Kids find a way.
So I dunno, maybe things should be on the provider sometimes?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11828270/how-do-i-exit-v...
Given how the engineering market is evolving, that's a huge limitation.
There is no ban on using knives below 18, and you can cut your fingers with those...
I am just as likely to get the kids on Pharo or Squeak (the old school stuff, not the newer Python based Squeak)
If we agree that nobody should be viewing porn because it makes us worse human beings, then maybe we should be wondering why producing it is permitted in the first place?
I have no definitive opinion on the topic, like everyone I am torn between desire for individual freedom and desire for effective collective measures. I wish I lived in a world in which we could regularly and scientifically assess the costs and benefits and just enact policies accordingly.
(btw, i also learned ed on a MudOS based mud :-)
I'm not necessarily saying that it's bad for adults to be viewing porn. I think there's an argument to be made that it's bad for all humans, though I personally don't think I subscribe to it. Since I don't think it's inherently bad for an adult to watch it, I don't think there should be prohibition on producing it.
I mean, let's rewind back to before the internet; if I thirteen year old wanted to view porn they couldn't easily go to a store and buy it, and even if they did get some the stuff that was easily available, to my understanding, was tame compared to what you get on PornHub. If a kid got a Playboy or caught something late-night on Skinemax, they'd see a booby and some obviously fake moaning, not hardcore stuff you get on pretty much any site.
Obviously this kind of stuff doesn't affect everyone the same way. Many, many, people looked at porn when they were teenagers and most of them aren't incels or creeps, but I don't think it's something that kids should really be viewing. I think drawing the line at "adult" vs "not adults" is a good enough demarcation.
Also, porn nowadays isn't just a woman showing a titty; if you go on PornHub or something, it is all pretty hardcore now.
I agree that good sex education is ideal, but I still think that we probably shouldn't be allowing kids to watch porn.
[1] Also, who actually pays for the pizza???? I mean, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Pizza should count as lunch, or at least dinner. Are all these horny housewives ordering pizzas with no way to pay for it making the prices of my pizza go up?
The hard question remains: what individual freedoms are we willing to sacrifice for this? Is it worth a Prohibition like policy? Online surveillance?
But in all seriousness, let's not pretend this has anything to do with kids' safety. This is just one more step from the global village towards the safe shopping mall.
I think it’s ok for adults because they aren’t nearly as confused and developing sexually. I think an adult viewing porn is more likely to be able to contextualize it as fiction/fantasy than a young teenager.
> But in all seriousness, let's not pretend this has anything to do with kids' safety. This is just one more step from the global village towards the safe shopping mall.
Ok but that’s why I am conflicted about it. I don’t know the motivations of lawmakers, I am saying my perspective.