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California’s Age Attestation Bill to Exclude Linux and All Open Source OSes
The DAAA, effective January 1st, 2027, requires operating system providers to collect a user’s birth date at account setup and pass an age-bracket signal to app stores and developers. AB 1856 doesn’t touch that core requirement, but it redefines who counts as an “operating system provider” in the first place.
The amended text excludes any person or entity that distributes an OS or application under “license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.” In plain terms, California’s upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act law excludes Linux distributions and open-source software generally.
Update (by Roy)
GoL:
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California Bill AB-1856 passes - exempting open source from age verification | GamingOnLinux
The age verification bill in California AB-1856 has passed with the exemptions for open source left intact.
A couple more:
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California Protects Linux From Mandatory Age Verification [Ed: This seems to be a slopfarm, i.e. a form of plagiarism]
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California moves to exempt Linux from new age-verification law
California lawmakers have passed AB 1856, a bill that would exclude qualifying open-source software distributors from being treated as operating system providers under the state’s upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA).
The measure passed the Senate 39–0 on August 26, and the Assembly concurred with the Senate amendments 69–0 the following day, but still requires Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature before becoming law.
Linux Magazine:
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Linux Exempt from California’s Age Verification...
The California legislature has passed Assembly Bill 1856, which will take effect January 1, 2027. That bill clearly states, “‘Operating system provider’ does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.”
In other words, if an OS license allows a user to copy, redistribute, or modify the software, it is exempt. Anyone who's spent enough time in the open source world knows exactly what that means: Linux. That's right, Linux is exempt from the age verification law in California.
Continue reading and you'll find another exclusion, which states, “offered to consumers as a stand-alone executable application through a covered application store,” which includes things like libraries, frameworks, and dependencies that are distributed through distribution package managers.
Finally, a third exemption covers the likes of browser extensions.
Several more a day later:
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Gadget Review ☛ California Exempts Linux from Age Verification
California’s Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), signed by Governor Newsom in October 2025, required any “operating system provider” to collect user age at account setup and transmit age laws signals to app developers by January 1, 2027. AB 1856, passed unanimously in late August 2026, rewrote who qualifies as a provider — and open-source projects got a clean exit.
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Linux gets age-verification exemption in California
California's Digital Age Assurance Act is due to take effect at the very start of 2027, bringing in sweeping age-verification checks by system providers. As part of it, operating systems will have to do age checks on users to lock down certain functions, which had led some Linux developers to go full crisis mode in response. Well, good news, the Assembly Bill 1856 amendment has just passed and it exempts open-source operating systems from compliance.
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PC Gamer ☛ Linux manages to avoid the age verification apocalypse, but SteamOS isn't in the clear yet
The amendment also ensures that operating system providers acquire "only the minimum amount of information necessary to comply" with the age check, and therefore this should stop providers from acquiring more information on users, or even spying on users for their own benefit, any more than necessary through the guise of Californian law.
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Linux gets California age verification exemption, but SteamOS fate unclear
California's Digital Age Assurance Act was always going to be messy for the open-source world. When the bill first surfaced in February, it swept Linux into its scope alongside Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, requiring all operating system providers to run age checks on users before unlocking certain functions. The Linux community did not take that quietly.
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Media Nama ☛ Explainer: California moves to exempt open-source software like Linux from age verification
California lawmakers have passed a bill that would exempt qualifying open-source operating systems from the state’s age-verification requirements.
Assembly Bill 1856 says that an operating system provider “does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.”
An earlier version would also have extended the age-signal duty to web browsers and website operators, and lawmakers removed that language before final passage.
ToI: