spinnetrouble

GrapheneOS has a duress password: a different PIN you can type in at any unlock prompt that tells your phone to wipe your SIM and contents

Not off the shelf smartwatches; wrist-worn tracking devices issued by ICE.

“The device was not an ordinary smart watch made by Apple or Samsung, but a special type that US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) had mandated the woman wear at all times, allowing the agency to track her. The device was beeping when she entered the hospital, indicating she needed to charge it, and she worried that if the battery died, ICE agents would think she was trying to disappear, the hospital workers recalled. She told them that, just days earlier, she had been put on a deportation flight to Mexico, but the pilot refused to let her fly because she was so close to giving birth.”

What a fucking dystopia. The only thing that gives me hope for America’s future is knowing that this is part of our established pattern: we’ll never do a right thing without trying all the wrong things first, and we’ll only get there kicking and screaming the whole way. This is part of that wrong-things-first approach, and we’ve got a good deal of kicking and screaming already… I really hope we get to the right-things-last part soon.

But you already don’t have somewhere you like

If you get banned for being under 18, you’ll end up starting from where you are right now. Trying other services, including +18 ones, can give you an idea of what features and things are important to you in a host. Not trying them only leaves you in the same spot without any benefit.

It can be hard to feel guilty about doing something you “aren’t supposed to,” but the feeling is not the same as actually doing something wrong. The feeling is there to help you slow down and think more deeply about the next steps you ought to take.

If I’m coming across as pushy, I apologize. I’m just excited about more people becoming privacy advocates (especially people who have grown up with invasive tech) and maybe a little mad about an age gate keeping you from doing something important to you.

I think I understand your hesitation better now. It feels like you’re calling attention to the fact that your stuff is by someone under 18, is that right? I get why that can feel like an unwise thing to do, but really, it’s super unlikely that anything bad will happen. I think the worst they could do is terminate your account for violating the terms of service, causing you to lose anything you posted. (Keep a backup of anything worth saving and you’re pretty well protected against that.) And it would take someone reporting your account to even get to that point in the first place. All’s I know is that if I were in your shoes, I’d just go ahead and make the account on the instance I wanted. Nobody’s checking IDs at the door, and people of every age and skill level post their anime-inspired art.

Is there something keeping you from making an account on a +18 instance? Not saying this to be obnoxious, it’s just been a while since an age gate has been a hurdle