Egregoros

i want to clarify something w.r.t. california requiring age "verification" at an operating system level. the way the law is specified is actually exactly the correct way to do this - users self-report their age during setup and that information is available to applications that have a reason to request it. it is entirely within the spirit of the law to add whatever age the user reports to a database that can be read from, like /etc/passwd which already can store things like emails or phone numbers. there is no suggestion that an ID check or facial scan be part of account setup, and any vendor implementing this would be doing so of their own accord

the vision of an age verification scheme like california's is that an adult can set up a child's account to be in a specific age group, then have the system automatically inhibit the child's access to applications that they aren't allowed to access. this could be further built upon by laws requiring ex. gambling services to check this signal before allowing the user to sign up. of course this can be circumvented, but all laws can

the way this will effect linux is not going to be described well by media because they don't tend to have the best understanding of the open source ecosystem. it will be up to distributions (not linux itself) to ensure there is an age step in account setup and a library for accessing that information. this is fairly simple to implement and work has already started on it

additionally, i am not interested in debating anyone on whether age verification should exist. im trying to clear up misinformation about a very simple bill that anyone can read. if i don't know you, i have no reason to discuss philosophy with you