"Attestation" Mandated in US If American Politicians Get Their Way

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 24, 2026,
updated Mar 09, 2026

• It's FOSS ☛ US State Colorado Wants Operating Systems (Including Linux) to Tell Every App How Old You Are

  Now, the U.S. state of Colorado is mulling over a bill to implement age reporting for installing apps on computers and mobile devices.

• PC Mag ☛ Colorado Lawmakers Push for Age Verification at the Operating System Level

  Rather than having people verify their age on every app they use, Colorado's SB26-051 would implement a way for devices to share an 'age-bracket' signal to third-party apps.

• Colorado General Assembly ☛ SB26-051 Age Attestation on Computing Devices

  Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date or age of the user of that device to provide a signal regarding the user's age bracket (age signal) to applications available in a covered application store;

• Colorado General Assembly ☛ INTRODUCED: LLS NO. 26-0433.01 Richard Sweetman x4333 SENATE BILL 26-051 [PDF]

  The bill requires an operating system provider to:
  • Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date or age of the user of that device to provide a signal regarding the user's age bracket (age signal) to applications available in a covered application store;

Late coverage:

• A new California law says all operating systems, including Linux, need to have some form of age verification at account setup

  The government of California is implementing a law that requires operating system providers to implement some form of age verification into their account setup procedures.

  Assembly Bill No. 1043 was approved by California governor Gavin Newsom in October of last year, and becomes active on January 1, 2027 (via The Lunduke Journal). The bill states, among other factors, that "An operating system provider shall do all of the following:"

  "(1) Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store.

2 more:

• A new California law says all operating systems, including Linux, need to have some form of age verification at account setup

• New California law will require operating systems to have age verification

  A highly restrictive new law coming out of California and going into effect in 2027 could force age verification into any device with an operating system in the state. The recently passed Assembly Bill No. 1043 goes into effect next January, and it demands age verification be added the start-up process of any OS device, which would include Microsoft, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, and arguably even things like SteamOS.

  California’s Assembly Bill 1043 was voted in and signed by governor Gavin Newsom in October 2025. It will go into effect on January 1, 2027.

Or here:

• California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including GNU/Linux and SteamOS — user age verified during OS account setup

  The law's broad definition of an "operating system provider" pulls in not just Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, but GNU/Linux distributions and Valve's SteamOS.

GoL:

• California law to require operating systems to check your age | GamingOnLinux

  The time of age assurance is upon us, and not just for social media - for operating systems too and that includes Linux as well of course.

It's FOSS:

• Age Verification: Protection Tool or Surveillance in Disguise?

  As more governments push age checks into our apps and operating systems, the dystopian future doesn't feel so far off anymore.

BoingBoing:

• California's age verification law could regulate every Linux command

  MidnightBSD, an open-source operating system, recently announced it would block California residents entirely rather than risk liability under the state's new age-verification law.

  California's AB 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act, was signed in October 2025 and takes effect January 1, 2027. Under its terms, anyone who ships an OS must bake in an age-declaration screen at account setup and provide an API so that every app on the system can query the user's age.

Also here:

• Resistance to operating system age checks coming from *checks notes* open source calculator and an OS that may just exclude Californians altogether

  California has adopted a bill that requires operating systems to ask for a user's age or date of birth during setup. The bill, which will become enforced legislation from January 1, 2027, says an OS should use this to determine the availability of applications in a storefront and share this information with any developer that requests it in real-time. All of which sounds incompatible with many of today's open source software, including Linux—so what are they to do?

  Jef Spaleta, project leader for popular Linux distribution, Fedora, has said they are still trying to get to grips with the legislation and what it requires. However, in their measured response, they have noted that age information may need to be tied to account creation and that information stored in a file somewhere easily accessible to applications.

Maybe slop:

• Volunteer-Run Linux Projects Must Build Age-Tracking APIs Under New California Mandate

  California has passed the Digital Age Assurance Act (Assembly Bill 1043), the first US law to directly regulate operating system behaviour, requiring OS providers to collect users’ age at account creation and share that data with app developers through a real-time API.

  Under the statute, users must be placed into four brackets — under 13, 13–15, 16–17, or 18+. When an app requests it, the OS must transmit the relevant bracket. Once received, developers are deemed to have “actual knowledge” of age, exposing them to legal liability. Enforced by the state Attorney General, penalties reach $2,500 per child for negligent violations and $7,500 for intentional breaches. The law takes effect on January 1, 2027. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it in October 2025.

TechRadar:

• California's age verification law is proving controversial — here's what you need to know, and why some Linux distros are in the firing line

  California has new legislation, which means that any provider of an operating system must ascertain the age of the user setting up the OS.

  As Tom's Hardware reports, this is California's Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), and it comes into effect on January 1, 2027.

  As of next year, any operating system will need to not only collect age data at setup, but also transmit that data to developers of any apps running on the OS via a real-time API.

GoL:

• Ubuntu and Fedora devs comment on California's new Digital Age Assurance Act | GamingOnLinux

  With California's new age checking law coming into action in January 2027, there's a lot of discussion on how Linux distributions will be handling it. California are also not the only ones going for it, as it appears Colorado will also be doing a similar thing but that's coming while later - and we can expect more to follow.

And here:

• Many more US states are planning or already have operating system age verification laws | GamingOnLinux

  We've already covered how California has a new operating system age-checking law coming into force next year - but many more US states also have plans or have them already approved. And I also recently wrote about Ubuntu and Fedora developers commenting on it, with that article briefly pointing out there's also a similar law planned for Colorado - but the situation gets a lot worse the more you look into it.

Late coverage:

• US state laws push age checks into the operating system

  Bad legislation, but an especially big headache for FOSS

  Many web sites, social media services, and other platforms require age verification on the theory that it will protect kids from seeing inappropriate content. But now some US states want to require the operating system itself to check your age and that could cause big headaches for FOSS vendors.