[xjay]

Coder sees "We need feature X". Coder implements feature X, marks it as complete; next.

So they have the coder (implementer) role covered, but not the "programmer" role ("thinker"/feature designer).

Leslie Lamport - Thinking Above the Code: ~ A lot of people like to think that they're thinking, but they don't really do much thinking. [1]

Evidently, there was no expectation that the coder/implementer was supposed to do any thinking here.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Yp3j_jk8Q&t=134s

[willcipriano]

This got past the undoubtedly upwards of nine product managers/business analysts/directors/etc on the team as well. Blaming the low man on that totem pole in a organization thick with management like that is silly.

None of the "idea men" had the idea of "what if someone's cat walks across the keyboard when we ask them their birthday". That's the embarrassing failure here.

[cdjk]

This could actually be a feature and not a bug from a legal perspective. If they are blocking anyone who gives any indication that they are under 13 then it might be easier to show compliance with COPPA.

This has made me wonder at times if the best way to get my data delete from someplace is to talk to customer service and repeatedly say that I'm twelve.

[hansvm]

That's definitely how it explicitly worked at one workplace; to the extent that account restrictions could form a poset, if we had evidence that some restriction might be required (e.g., from multiple forms of age evidence, do any of them indicate this might be a minor or some other protected class), that restriction would be applied.