this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026
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Speaking as a brazilian resident, the law will not be enforced. No such laws are ever enforced here. Everybody openly pirates everything, people sell retro gaming systems preloaded with thousands of ROMs openly online and in physical shops, and the government doesn't even have 1% of the surveillance infrastructure needed to make enforcement attractive. The law is just electoral posturing and lip service to please evangelical idiots... but I repeat myself.
Remember what the maintainer of The Pirate Bay once said?
Never be too certain something won't be enforced, as the power of capitalists are far worse than the public can imagine.
Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but this may just be the start. Big corps may find their way to control every aspect, step by step.
You're right to give that warning, but Brazil isn't a surveillance state like China or the USA. Our demons are different.
Of course, that could change in the future so a law like this shouldn't stand regardless.
This is different from pirating. The government will be going after the developers like they did Kim Dotcom.
Not the Brazilian government, is what I'm saying. At most they'll tell ISPs to block a few websites, and they won't comply without a judicial order. Our Supreme Court, STF, is actually sane unlike our legislators, so no such order will be given.
The law will most likely be enforced where it matters: smartphones from companies that "manufacture" them in Brazil (which is like 90% of market share of smartphones in Brazil).
So both Android and iOS will most likely start requiring some official ID to be provided or facial recognition to setup the device and/or to access both Play Store or App Store, which yeah, seems a bit concerning.
Also, if you read the law: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2025/lei/L15211.htm, or in this PDF in English: https://www.gov.br/mdh/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2025/novembro/brasil-apresenta-avancos-em-seguranca-digital-da-infancia-e-lanca-eca-digital-em-ingles-durante-cupula-social-do-g20-na-africa-do-sul/eca-digital-ing-v2.pdf?ref=itsfoss.com, you can see the only thing an operating system (that does not come with under 18 age improper content, like pornographic content, in it's installation media) really needs to implement is a self-declaration of being "age appropriate" to use the system, otherwise deny the installation of the OS.
The part where the operating system must implement age verification is here:
Which has been officially translated in the PDF to :
The II there, that states:
Is totally optional, there's no way any judge in Brazil could enforce that as mandatory to be implemented in all OSes and punish any OS that denies installation for under 18 age citizens of Brazil and does not provide such parental supervision mechanisms.
Now, for any digital media or computer application that either contains or provides direct access to age restricted content from the internet I suppose article 9 applies:
So, yeah, if you are providing an operating system that itself comes with any age restricted content as Brazilian law stipulates (such as pornographic content), I think self-reporting of age would be damned insufficient due to § 1º there:
If there's anything I'm missing here please point out.
Great analysis. But I've never heard of an OS that comes pre-loaded with porn, or with any media content other than the wallpapers and a few stock samples. Though I suppose there's nothing stopping anyone from creating Bukkake Linux and shipping it.
It's government trying to control people all over again.
Bolsonaro (Flávio) will probably make an argument saying that under him people will be free from control or something like that, but it's just bullshit. What we would get under him is brazilian ICE (Internal Customs Enforcement - isn't that funny).
... Are you going to argue the current state of affairs in Brazil where international multibillion-dollar companies directly earn money from child exploitation done in their "social networks" and don't want to collaborate with Brazil's judicial system most of the times, or argue they can't do anything, or that they can't be liable for the user generated content.... is all fine?
This law mainly intends to create judicial means to make those companies that control big social networks that are widely used in Brazil more responsible towards previous existing laws, by making them liable to implement mitigatory measures to restrict access of children (or any person under 18) to content forbidden by Brazilian law (deemed as inappropriate for such ages).
Also, I don´t know what the hell do you think, but like, Brazil is not the USA where the federal government does not have info on all citizens.
Here in Brazil virtually 100% of citizens already have official government IDs, where the person "biometry" is collected (fingerprints and user facial photo), which contains basically associates a person's very sensitive info (full name, local and date of birth, affiliation, photo, fingerprints) with a government unique ID (CPF). Brazilians are basically obliged to get such ID at birth. There are laws (LGPD) that force the federal government to be very careful whilst storing and handling such data, and give citizens rights to sue anyone, private companies or the government itself, if their data is mishandled or collected and used for different means of what the person allowed for such data to be used. Also, there already exists the "gov.br" app, which stores citizens facial 3D info for more than like, half of the population.
So, if anything, you are like, 30 years late into government "controlling" people in Brazil.
If that's your concern, be sure the government already possess all this data, but, unlike the USA, there are government workers here at multiple levels that would be a big barrier for such misuse of the data like Elon Musk did with DOGE, collecting data of the US citizens for personal use in a few weeks. First anyone to do that would have to get rid of "stability" of the public servants, so all public servants at such positions in Brazil could be replaced by people politically aligned to the government, and/or all public companies that handle sensitive data for the government, like DATASUS and SERPRO, would have to be privatized.
Controlling people in the way you mean goes all the way back to "Revolta das Vacinas" and the higienistas. That's not what I mean. What I mean is digital control over what people do. You think Brazil doesn't have the US technology to control what people do over the web, but look at all the Amazon and Oracle datacenters that keep appearing on Brazil.
It might not be direct technology transfer, but it is at least licensed to process brazilian info and, if with Bolsonaro, to help the government with direct knowledge against public interest.
CPF, fingerprint, photos,... that's all well knowledge of fingerprinting the citizen. But what about the digital fingerprint? That could be much larger: what you do, your psychological profile, and what you do on your free time.
Can you imagine; all those companies in contract with the government. Suddenly they have access to your profile and how you respond to everything. I'm not talking directly about the democratic government here, since it doesn't matter if it is Lula or Bolsonaro on this. But you have to keep in mind that the personal interest, by which I mean the interest of the peoples initiative, association and expression, is defended by the left, not the right.
You're in for a surprise if you think the government doesn't want absolute control. In an age where people use their phones, are constantly online. Maybe you will find out there people who "just want to get in peace to their homes", or "just want to be left alone", or that the basic for life is "being able to walk carelessly on the streets". It's the complete reversal of what is human and what we need to be human: connection, food, water, development.
People need education and knowledge, but more than that, people need the right to build, the right to tinker, the right to find out who they are, the right to find out what's best for everyone in society and for their own groups, the right to participate democratically.
None of which are guaranteed in Brazil right now, and certainly won't be with Bolsonaro. Don't be surprised if Bolsonaro talks trash of the Fediverse or of what the radical left thinks is freedom of expression and association.
The problem is, of course, if those evangelical idiots end up in power again they now have the power to wield it. (or to at least try)
The amount of bootleg dvd shops I saw in Paraíba and the amount of friends that have uTorrent installed on their phones is more proof of that. I'm all for it, I wish bandwidth was better all around Brazil to make it easier for everyone to just download whatever you guys want, especially if it's from an American company
Dedo no cú e gritaria
Is it strange that i understood this even though i'm Italian?
Well, Portuguese is a Latin language, so there's a common root.
MidnightBSD chose to be out of Brazil, like it happened with Rumble. This law will be enforced.
If you live in Brazil and probably South America for some time, you'll know that it is hard to get hardware from Europe even from Ebay. It simply "does not ship to your destination". Now with the Mercosur + EU agreement that may be easier, but if software keeps leaving, the hardware and hardware culture won't be able to make up for it.
It's just software leaving the margins, and it will get worse if Google keeps pushing Android and Mobile culture further. Brazil may just become as corporate-centric as India.
How do you mean about India? Please pardon my ignorance.
India is heading for IT centric jobs in large corporations, planning to be "the brain of the world". With many IT consulting systems all over the world going through India. That's the plan. And that will be done by large Indian corporations, like the Tata consulting mentioned on the article.
https://www.ft.com/content/b3c0b486-07a2-11dc-9541-000b5df10621
Interesting, thanks.
The law isn’t going to be enforced in CA either