Claude Age Verification and Access Restrictions Draw Backlash

Anthropic announced Claude is no longer available for minors and has switched from Persona to Yoti for age verification. The thread is frustrated and confused, with multiple users saying they'll simply drop Claude if asked to verify age, and others noting there's no clear public justification for the policy change or the vendor switch.

This sits alongside the earlier story this week about Anthropic blocking Claude Code subscribers from using third-party harnesses like OpenClaw. The pattern is that Anthropic is tightening control on multiple axes simultaneously: who can access the product, how they can access it, and through what interfaces. Each individual decision has a plausible rationale, but the cumulative effect reads as a platform asserting more control over its users.

For developers building on Claude, this is the third or fourth reminder in recent months that Anthropic's platform terms are a moving target. The 'OpenClaw' restriction directly hit startups that had built workflows around the Claude subscription tier.