Apple: you must be at least 17 years old to use Opera

Emil

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This week, the Opera web browser became the first non-native browser made available in Apple's Mac App Store. While Apple approved the browser, it still managed to hurt its competitor by putting this ridiculous label on it: "You must be at least 17 years old to download this app."

Opera has reacted in good humor. "I'm very concerned," Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software, said in a statement. "Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."

The company then offered a workaround for those under 17: just visit opera.com and download it yourself. "We do not ask for your age or your credit card number," an Opera spokesperson pointed out. "Please, get your parents' permission before using this browser."

Remember the big hoopla around Apple blocking alternative browsers on iOS? Cupertino finally had to give up because the legal system got involved. On the Mac, Apple couldn't simply block third-party browsers from the platform because they've been available for years. Still, the company wanted to make Opera look worse than Safari, and this is apparently the company's solution.

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Wow, absolutely ridiculous. They better start putting a warning when you open Safari too. Who knows what people could be using it for /sarcasim.
 
That is the problem when you gain enough market share. The antitrust people start to come after you. Apples answer allow opera but try and make it look as bad as possible in the process.
 
Why do people like Apple? I'm so philosophically opposed to what they do, I could never own a Mac even if I liked the OS.
 
It might make some sense, currently the Mac App Store has no parental controls (i think) and the current version of Safari provides this controls and they're integrated with OS X. Now imagine if you're a parent and have set for your children a limit to only have access to certain child-safe webpages, they can bypass them by downloading Opera or any other browser that doesn't use parental controls. It's my believe this is the reason for imposing such a disclaimer.
 
Finding porn is a God given right of every adolescent boy. Putting 4 digit codes on cable boxes didn't stop us back in the day (1 down, 9998 to go), nor will this stop them now.
 
prismatics said:
Why do people like Apple? I'm so philosophically opposed to what they do, I could never own a Mac even if I liked the OS.

I agree completely. I don't see why people buy Macs in the first place.
 
gwailo247 said:
Finding porn is a God given right of every adolescent boy. Putting 4 digit codes on cable boxes didn't stop us back in the day (1 down, 9998 to go), nor will this stop them now.

Amen.
 
I think you should have to be over 18 to use any browser. Over 60 would be even better. Just look at all the porn, violence and stockers our youngin's are exposed too.

Just kidding. Nice one Apple - power corrupts.
 
"Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."

Lol. That was gold.

Yet again, this one of those reasons why I want to slap whoever defends Apple. I just can't conceive it.
 
Nima304 said:
prismatics said:
Why do people like Apple? I'm so philosophically opposed to what they do, I could never own a Mac even if I liked the OS.

I agree completely. I don't see why people buy Macs in the first place.
People buy Macs for the image of sophistication and eliteness, to appear like they are not following the crowd, for the apparently better photo imaging software and the misguided notion that Macs cannot get viruses. I have known people to buy Macs for one or more of these reasons and now they are officially dead to me
 
marioestrada said:
It might make some sense, currently the Mac App Store has no parental controls (i think) and the current version of Safari provides this controls and they're integrated with OS X. Now imagine if you're a parent and have set for your children a limit to only have access to certain child-safe webpages, they can bypass them by downloading Opera or any other browser that doesn't use parental controls. It's my believe this is the reason for imposing such a disclaimer.

Never thought of that - I wasn't aware Safari had those controls in it and just figured they were trying to limit the impact of another browser. A wide open browser without any way to siphon the content would leave the entire internet at a child's fingertips and we all know what that means and could certainly merit that rating assuming parental control in Safari.

Any thoughtful counter-arguments to this rather than the stereotypical Apple-hate-jig?
 
I'm guessing this is a security issue for Apple. Just like in pc, there are many web browsers thus many also have security vulnerabilities that compromise the system.

In mobile, Apple likes a closed system controlled by them to control security issues. I remember there was a jailbreak that uses a vulnerability in safari mobile browser. If that can happen in Safari, there is a good chance it will happen to Opera.

A good move by Apple but not a nice implementation.
 
I guess for the sake of kids, the age restriction was sort of justified, the fact that is negatively impacts Opera is just an added bonus for Apple

If the purpose of the age restriction was to better enforce child safe sites then make it a rule for developers to have that option or ban 3rd party browsers all together, if Apple is that concerned.
 
Whoaman said:
marioestrada said:
It might make some sense, currently the Mac App Store has no parental controls (i think) and the current version of Safari provides this controls and they're integrated with OS X. Now imagine if you're a parent and have set for your children a limit to only have access to certain child-safe webpages, they can bypass them by downloading Opera or any other browser that doesn't use parental controls. It's my believe this is the reason for imposing such a disclaimer.

Never thought of that - I wasn't aware Safari had those controls in it and just figured they were trying to limit the impact of another browser. A wide open browser without any way to siphon the content would leave the entire internet at a child's fingertips and we all know what that means and could certainly merit that rating assuming parental control in Safari.

Any thoughtful counter-arguments to this rather than the stereotypical Apple-hate-jig?

There are many free apps on the internet to set parental controls in Macs.

What Apple has done is ridiculous. It also shows that they are not confident that Safari is a better browser than Opera.
 
This is simply ridiculous. Unless Apple has a non-Apple-profitable reason, my money's on that the age restriction is simply there because of the Opera logo.
 
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