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Nanny state vs. Linux: show us your ID, kid
A new wave of age verification laws requires kids and teenagers to register before they can use a computer.
When I was a teenager, I was forbidden to look at Playboy Magazine. I just wanted to read the articles and interviews (Cough, Cough). No, seriously, I did, but I also wanted to look at the photos. Guess what? Although I was told not to, I read Playboy anyway. Here we are, decades later, and people are still trying, and failing, to prevent young people from seeing and reading forbidden fruit. I never thought, though, that 21st-century prudes would block young people from using operating systems! But here we are. Lucky us.
As my colleague Liam Proven reports, several states in the US are now demanding that operating system vendors collect and store the age or date of birth for each user account. Now, for Apple and Microsoft, it's no big deal. Microsoft, for instance, requires Windows 11 users to have a Microsoft account, and Apple, while claiming it's a privacy-first platform, still examines every photo you take with Apple's Enhanced Visual Search.
It's a different story with Linux and the other open source operating systems, like the BSDs. They have always been about empowering their users to do anything they want, within the confines of their licenses, anyway, anytime they want, no matter whether they're five or ninety-five.
Also see:
MidnightBSD Bans Users in Brazil and California, Warns More Regions Could Follow
I am of the belief that age verification laws are multiplying like a virus; these have seemingly popped up out of nowhere and are being lobbied for hard by many politicians and lawmakers.
Brazil's Digital Statute of the Child and Adolescent takes effect on March 17, 2026, and explicitly names operating systems and app stores as entities that must implement age verification.
California's Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), signed in October 2025 and effective January 1, 2027, requires OS providers to collect age data at account setup and pipe it to every app via a real-time API.