Even in a world where it is for some reason a legal necessity to create age gates to content that are about as difficult to get through as a beaded doorway, is there really any point in using the dial-a-lie method? Aren't we just trying to get people to say if they are or are not old enough for said content? It's a yes or no question, so why in the world is it standard practice to have three dropdowns to lock down a youtube video when a check box is good enough for all the legally binding EULA nonsense? I sure hope its not for statistical purposes, because while I'm long since old enough to do anything age restricted I can't say I have ever bothered doing it right. That is unless my birthday really is January, 1, whatever they hell I felt like clicking on.

It's just a ridiculous way of over complicating something that isn't particularly useful in the first place.

.............and rant over

I think it's done more as a "cover their ass" kind of thing, i.e. if your child viewed anything here, it wasn't our fault.

That explains the use of a content gate, but the question is why isn't a button sufficient? There are places that do it, but not so much in the gaming side of things.

There probably is some legal logic that doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone that isn't a lawyer. Whatever it is, it's gets high marks for be obnoxious.

Yeah, I've wondered that too - I'm sure everyone lies about their birth date, whether they're under 18 or not...

I think it's just convention, but I am not sure.

I almost always put my birthdate as 1940 for these sorts of things, just to mess up any demographics they may be attempting.

There are two kinds of people in this world.

legal stuffs, it have to be there. I'm over 18 but I never put my real age on the web (well when is required for doing a payment for example yes but that's the exception)

People who think there are two types of people in the world, and people who are smart enough to know better, right?

According to some sites (god knows why they offer such insane date options) I was born on Jan 1, 1860.

As well as being a legal safety net, it also allows 'parental controls' on individual computers to function?

They are getting you to physically interact with the site in a way that would be hard to automate like simply pushing a button.
This apparently is accepted as a 'digital signature' of sorts, and frees them from liability, if the content if not appropriate for some.
Yep, legal stuff. ;)

After decades of American legalese bullshit attached to every product under the sun, the legal system has recognized that nobody reads it, and anyone will blindly click 'I agree' or 'Okay' or 'Let's Go' or whatever it takes to move forward. So now we're obligated to actually enter a date, in the hopes that the requirement will actually register in our brain before we advance. Just remember, we do it all for the children. A pull-down menu is a compelling barrier, and keeps both pornography and gore out of elementary minds.

To the extent that it prevents 'accidental' access, but it will never stop a determined child. For that you need parental controls on the individual computers they use.

Praise the nine this wasn't a widespread thing when I was in school! :P