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Age verification isn't sage verification inside OSes
There are two ways to look at the California Assembly Bill 1043, known as The Digital Age Assurance Act or DAAA. One is to say it is a 2025 law requiring operating systems and app stores to implement age verification during account setup to protect minors online. The other is to note that the law is all the worst things a law can be.
It is vague, using terms that allude but do not define. It sets specific and punitive fines for non-compliance, without specifying what non-compliance looks like. It will have a chilling effect on innovation by creating a foggily fearsome landscape of liability. It does not fix that which it claims to be fixable, and it breaks that which ought not to be broken. In the words of the General Confession in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer: there is no health in it. Toddler working with computer and smartphone
It is incoherent and tautologous. It talks of "digital signals" between OS, application stores, and apps. This excludes, one surmises, all those analog signals that developers would be tempted to use. Yodeling, perhaps, or interpretive dance. It talks of "age verification" without verification. It applies to users "on a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device that can access a covered application store or download an application." We can run Doom on smart toothbrushes. Everything is a general purpose computer if you stare at it hard enough, sayeth Turing. Not all operating systems have user accounts, saith FreeDOS, And what of smart TVs, which all ages can simultaneously use?
Also today:
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What is 'Ageless Linux,' which deliberately violates the law requiring age verification during OS setup? - GIGAZINE
In California, USA, the Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), which requires users to verify their age during OS account setup to protect minors online, is scheduled to go into effect in January 2027. However, an operating system called 'Ageless Linux' has emerged that deliberately violates this law by not verifying users' ages.
It's FOSS:
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Ageless Linux Emerges to Protest OS-Level Age Verification Laws
A new Linux distro has appeared.
Not surprisinhg. We get new Linux distributions almost every month, sometimes even every week.
This one is based on Debian. Again, not surprising. Debian has long been the mother of countless Linux distros.
But the interesting part isn’t the base. It’s the reason this distro exists.
It was created as a symbol of resistance.
That’s also not new in the Linux world. Many distros have been born out of disagreement or protest. For example, Void Linux emerged during the heated systemd controversy, offering a system that avoided systemd entirely.
Linux Magazine:
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Some Linux Distros Skirt Age Verification Laws » Linux Magazine
There are new laws coming into play that require minors to register before they are able to use a computer. According to the Register, California is not the only state to take up such laws.
California Assembly Bill 1043 states, "This bill, beginning January 1, 2027, would require, among other things related to age verification with respect to software applications, an operating system provider, as defined, to provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder, as defined, to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device…."
The bill continues from there to state that it requires developers to request a signal "with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider" when the application is downloaded and launched.
What this means is that anyone developing a Linux distribution must provide a system for storing the age or date of birth for every user account on a system.
To get around this, MidnightBSD has decided to add a clause in its license that reads, "California residents are not authorized to use MidnightBSD for desktop use in the state of California effective January 1, 2027."
It's FOSS:
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Garuda Linux Draws a Line on Age Verification as Arch Stays Keeps Mum
Age verification is sadly here to stay, as the politicians pushing these laws don't seem to care much about what people actually think. Open source projects have been left to deal with the fallout, either by starting compliance work, taking a public stance, or outright blocking users from affected regions.
Garuda Linux is one of the latest projects that has had to address this publicly via an official statement, answering the age verification question directly.
Techradar:
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Linux introduces system-level age checks as new legislation pressures OS developers and sparks controversy across global distro communities
Recent changes within the Linux ecosystem suggest that age verification could move closer to the operating system level.
An update to systemd introduces a new field for storing a user’s date of birth, designed to support compliance with laws in regions including California, Colorado, and Brazil.
The addition is intended to enable age verification requirements and may also support upcoming parental control features linked to application frameworks.