This is fucking stupid
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
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No operating system needs to know the age of a user, it's just not within the scope of how it operates normally. Software will always be bypassed no matter what the law is. Brb, "moving" my computers using a VPN.
So this is basically just misinformation. There is no age or identity verification as part of this bill, the age is self-reported by the user and you could select any age you want. The bill requires the operating system to have users select an age when creating an account. The intention is that parents will select their child's age when setting up their child's accounts on phones and computers, to age-gate them from accessing certain software or websites.
Regardless, I don't support this feature being mandatory, because it limits parents' choices. Parents should be able to choose to disable this feature entirely or allow their children to use an OS that does not include this feature, if that is what they feel is appropriate for their child.
Still fucking stupid and just a slow creep towards some bullshit like "kernel level age verification" where most Linux distros can't possibly comply because the chip manufacturers won't work with developers to certify unless they pay a $10,000 fee.
Thanks for the additional info!
Apparently this will include Linux…
lol no it won't. what are they gonna do, go around the world knocking on doors asking open source devs to include age verification in their Linux distros? the law is completely unenforceable.
It isn't enforceable on the personal level, but every commercial distro will need an implementation (and let's be honest, they will each create their own) to sell pre-installed or to offer service for public and private device fleets.
Meh, adding an age question to adduser wouldn't be that bad, we could even replace the current room number question
In essence, while the bill doesn't seem to require the most egregious forms of age verification (face scans or similar), it does require OS providers to collect age verification of some form at the account/user creation stage—and to be able to pass a segmented version of that information to outside developers upon request.
As much as I hate this, just filling in a drop down on OS install is fine with me. This is the ideal solution. Tell your kid’s device it’s for a kid, then use the default age restrictions correctly. That’s perfectly fine to me.
Anything to avoid evil age verification services that force deanonymization through every app and service.
I do still hold a strong reservation against these age locks — how long until the US deems LGBTQ and teaching about slavery as “mature” topics?
Agree with everything you say, I don’t like that it has to happen but having the device report whether you’re a child or adult makes more sense than having every service do it poorly themselves.
The headline has “verification” in it presumably as to dog whistle to recent verification schemes gone awry to apparently drive clicks, but the quotes of the law in question don’t seem to actually warrant verification. Just to associate an age to a user account, which seems fine? So long as sudoers are assumed to be 18+ this could have near zero practical impact for day to day setup for many use cases. And let’s face it what’s the point if you are a sudoer, you could just change it?