I think the more interesting question would be how operating systems guarantee that users and admins can enter correct ages only 
Those demanding such rules did not really think, or they just wanted to get more precious privacy data for free.
Everybody who clutches their pearls about this topic, should have a basic read. This law is a paper tiger.
The law does not require photo ID uploads or facial recognition, with users instead simply self-reporting their age,
And for everybody who is capable of reading the law itself:
Thatâs not true, and itâs also rather naive.
It says that the operating system has to pass the data on to the app developers.
This means the user can be tracked. And not just young users, but everyone!
2 Likes
You may want to read the linked law, before claiming it is not true.
It even explains that collecting more data or submitting it to third parties is not allowed.
But yeah, it is hard to discuss technical topics when emotions are involvedâŚ
Itâs right there in the introduction of the first linked article.
The belief that nothing else will be handed over is very, very naive.
Ban. Never trust it.
See the EUâs scrapped chat monitoring.
The big three continue to scan away diligently. There is no intervention from politicians. Because that is actually what they want.
That is why I say NO â absolutely, 1000%, without restrictions and without the slightest concession â to the surveillance regulations and fantasies.
2 Likes
Itâs linux. First, if the company does not exist in the place where the law is, it is not required to enforce the age verification. They can simply have a disclaimer that the OS is not for use in those states. Also, using a recovery boot disk, you will be able to hack into the userdb and put all â***'sâ in the field. You will also be able to set the userdb file to read only by root and set the stick bit so itâs perms canât be changed even by root ( I have been bit by that before so I know it works). Like a previous post said, any distro that enforces this will no longer be used. There is also the possibility of a âlegal challengeâ. for example, it a minor uses it they would be using a machine where the default birthday is for an adult. That kind of loop hole will probably invalidate the law. It will be interesting to watch though
How on earth do you know all that?
And even if you did, sorry, your view and beliefs are very naive.
Once you start, no matter how small the change, Pandoraâs box is opened.
Thatâs why. 1000% NO to everything!
2 Likes
There are users which can read a really short piece of law and understand it. And than there are â1000% NO to everythingâ users 
Itâs sad that some ppl do not even think a little bit ahead. Age verification (the verification is even missing in this law) is an absolute standard in daily life. Movies, bank accounts, games, nearly everything in life needs an age verificationâŚbut for some ppl this seems like devils work and restriction of their rights⌠
1 Like
dismissing peoplesâ concerns about mandatory data collection is not the way to go about this. surveillance fears are not unjustified. even if the current laws allow you to put whatever you want into the fields, once they become standard it would not take much to make photo id mandatory, and later clear name enforcement on the internet, things like that. And whatâs stopping other states from going further than the laws in california?
people have had their houses searched for lesser offenses than lying about their identity on the internet.
Opposition at an early stage is certainly the right way to go about it, I just wish people were more reasonable towards devs, maintainers and admins. lawmakers should bear the brunt of complaints.
4 Likes
Since youâre attacking me here without any justification, I suppose Iâm allowed to say that there are also people who are extremely naive, who canât see beyond their own noses and can only parrot what theyâre told.
Without the ability to combine ideas, think beyond A to B, and form their own opinions independently of others.
If you now feel attacked and delete this comment, then I ask you to delete your comment in its entirety as well.
1 Like
Going to ask that everyone bring the temperature down a bit here.
If yâall canât do that, then weâll close the topic.
I donât feel attacked. And i didnât attack you. But yelling â1000% against everythingâ is kind of useless. It misses all technical background or base. Itâs only FUD.
But it is precisely the legislature that sets out these surveillance fantasies and requirements.
And not just far away, but right here in the EU and its member states. So you donât have to look far.
1 Like
We can argue all day about the (admittedly very real) potential for mass surveillance and legislative creep, but two issues stand out to me:
-
The California law does not require anything from the user beyond typing a number (to be stored locally) when installing an OS
-
Failure to comply means no Linux for the people of California (or Colorado, or Illinois, who are passing copycat laws)
As a resident of Illinois, Iâm willing to type a number upon installation if the alternative is no Linux for me. I would rather not have to do that, but the Illinois General Assembly is leaving me no alternatives.
Save your vitriol for Apple, Google, Microsoft, and your legislators.
2 Likes
Just wanted to add my five cents here.
I feel like many people forget how much control they have over their Linux distros compared to something like Windows or MacOS. And how easy it is to circumvent or not comply with age reporting/attestation/verification, at least for now.
For example, looking into âAgeless Linuxâ project, it seems to be just a script that rewrites OS information and runs a daemon that overrides birthDate field. Thereâs also systemd-no-age-verification fork (although I wouldnât trust it as it seems vibe coded). liberated-systemd seems like a more actively maintained one. Again, you donât have to use systemd in the first place, there are plenty of non-systemd distributions, but Iâm looking at it from the perspective of openSUSE user who wants to keep using it for as long as possible.
Hopefully, this will eventually converge into something like XLibre with a more or less drop-in replacement we could use.
I think in the end, it wonât matter if Linux distributions implement age verification or not. These laws are intended to verify a userâs age for the daily online services people rely on, like social media and gaming. If these laws are enforced by having online services ask the operating system for a third-party age verification token, we have a problem. If the userâs age canât be verified by the OS, the service will be denied or limited. Ultimately, this will force people to flock to the operating systems or distros that actually implement the verification just so they can access their favorite platforms.
2 Likes
Are they trying to force us into voluntary surveillance?
That is what the letters suggest, and they are fuelling paranoia about surveillance.
Why, for example, in the app proposed by the EU â which, incidentally, was hacked within two minutes â are names merely pseudonymised rather than anonymised?
1 Like
There is only one way to rule out surveillance.
No to any form of such monitoring.
Anything else wonât work and is simply naive.
1 Like
Good point.
OK â Social Media: there are countries attempting to restrict access to these platforms by young, school age, people.
On the other hand, here in Europe, Estonia has started a European campaign suggested that, Europe should regulate Big Tech rather than trying to ban children from accessing Social Media. 
3 Likes
Devuan