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Operating Systems Government

System76 Comments On Recent Age Verification Laws (phoronix.com) 87

Posted by BeauHD from the town-hall dept.
In a blog post on Thursday, System76 CEO Carl Richell criticized new state laws in California, Colorado, and New York that would require operating systems to verify users' ages and expose that information to apps, arguing the rules are easy for kids to bypass and ultimately undermine privacy and freedom more than they protect minors.

"System76's position is interesting given that they sell Linux-loaded desktops, workstations and laptops plus being an operating system vendor with their in-house Pop!_OS distribution and COSMIC desktop environment," adds Phoronix's Michael Larabel, noting that they're also based out of Colorado. Here's an excerpt from the post: "A parent that creates a non-admin account on a computer, sets the age for a child account they create, and hands the computer over is in no different state. The child can install a virtual machine, create an account on the virtual machine and set the age to 18 or over. It's a similar technique to installing a VPN to get around the Great Firewall of China (just consider that for a moment). Or the child can simply re-install the OS and not tell their parents. ... In the case of Colorado's and California's bills, effectiveness is lost. In the case of New York's bill, liberty is lost. In the case of centralized platforms, potential is lost. ... The challenges we face are neither technical nor legal. The only solution is to educate our children about life with digital abundance. Throwing them into the deep end when they're 16 or 18 is too late. It's a wonderful and weird world. Yes, there are dark corners. There always will be. We have to teach our children what to do when they encounter them and we have to trust them." "We are accustomed to adding operating system features to comply with laws," writes Richell, in closing. "Accessibility features for ADA, and power efficiency settings for Energy Star regulations are two examples. We are a part of this world and we believe in the rule of law. We still hope these laws will be recognized for the folly they are and removed from the books or found unconstitutional."
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System76 Comments On Recent Age Verification Laws More

System76 Comments On Recent Age Verification Laws

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  • STOP PLAYING THE GAME (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PalmPreFan ( 8220244 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @05:32PM (#66026948)

    We all know this is a pretext for digital ID. You do not have to play along. You can just refuse it all and say no. You are not a sheep. You are not a slave. You are not cattle. You have agency and free will in this world and in this life. Grow a spine and say "NO, I REFUSE".

    • The computer literate know. The rest don't understand what's happening or can't be convinced to care. The grandmas and soccer moms support it because "think of the children" and won't listen to other arguments.

      This is all by design. As one person put it, "this isn't about protecting children; it's about identifying dissidents."
    • People drag you along whether you like it or not. You need people to stop voting stupid.

      • Voting isn't the issue. Both sides are controlled and bought. You simply need to refuse in mass and at scale.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      We might be able to ignore it but manufacturers can't just ignore it. We have to tell parents how bad this is and get the general public engaged to do the right thing. Sway the legislation.

      And the right thing is to ban user tracking. The online ad industry relies on user tracking. Facebook relies on user tracking. Youtube relies on user tracking. Tiktok relies on user tracking.

      Take away that reliance then the algorithm incentives dissipate. The pushing of clicks and engagement also then dissipates.

      Th

  • A user account, like having a .bashrc, should have a .dob, containing the user's DOB. This file should be immutable and owned by root, only modifiable by root. Problem solved.
    • Still seems like overkill to implement at the Operating System level.. The vast majority of applications available for any given OS, really don't pose a threat to minors. The goal is to regulate access to Porn, Social media, streaming, and the like which are the most common agents of chaos. You don't need age verification for excel, calc, or word. Or far less likely to need. It's really just on the network level that any age restrictions need to be implemented. And really just applies to certain domains, or

    • A user account, like having a .bashrc, should have a .dob, containing the user's DOB. This file should be immutable and owned by root, only modifiable by root. Problem solved.

      Which problem - exactly - does that solve?

    • Including DOB goes above and beyond what the state of California is demanding. They just demand to report that I'm over 18.

      • They just demand to report that I'm over 18.

        For now. The noose will tighten as time goes on.

      • The day you turn 18, the apps will know that you just switched age brackets, which is equivalent to knowing your DOB.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Problem is easy to solve: Boot a stick with, e.g. Kali, and change it. Secure boot, you say? Switch that crap off or move the disk to another system with it off for the change.

      On Linux, this is not doable without fundamentally crippling the OS. Politicians are stupid and arrogant. But what else is new?

  • I live in Colorado. Nobody here wanted this fucking law. It was just foisted on us by hyperventillating and clueless far-left assholes who pretty much all came from California and now run this state, too. They fucked up their own state now they want to come here and nanny-state Colorado, too.

    I noticed for example that NetBSD is trying to raise $50k this year and their up to a whopping $600 so far. The OpenBSD guys are in a similar state so far this year. They maintain OpenSSH and a few other critical pro
    • I'm pretty sure the right is the driving force behind these things.

      • What? The rightwing that run California, Colorado and New York? You are that out of touch with which state is run by which party? Evidentally because they didn't say Florida and Texas, which ARE run by the Republicans.

        So yes, this is state legislatures completely controlled by Democrats pushing these laws.

        Don't worry though, the Republicans will probably do it also, but for now, it's the Democrats trying to "protect us from ourselves"

        • If you think the US Democrat party is left, let alone far-left, you need to try talking to an actual leftist at some point in your life. The left want to do things like abolish capital. The last time the Democrats were in power, they didn't even shut the concentration camps.

          • That's fair. I was strictly going from an American perspective on America politics. Much like our Red party, the Blue party loves saying stuff but not actually following through with it. There's been a time or two I was really hoping the Dems meant something they said, but as soon as they could really do it, they folded and watered it down. It almost appears as naivety but I'm ready to accept they are just corrupt. As bad as the Red team? No idea.

            I prefer to think of them both as one party, the money party.

  • It's not the same (Score:5, Interesting)

    by liqu1d ( 4349325 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @05:50PM (#66026998)
    Shite argument, ADA helps people who potentially couldn't use a system if not for laws. Age verification is a system for privacy invasion hanging onto the coattails of inept parents. Laws should protect children from bad parents. This primarily works by punishing said bad parents not by making the rest of society suffer for their inability. There have always been tools to protect children whilst not perfect are still orders of magnitude better than this implementation.

    • Age verification is a system for...inept parents.

      No it isn't. That's just the excuse they use because there are enough gullible people to believe the "think of the children" bullshit. Age verification is a power play to weaken the citizenry. It's corrupt government overreach.

    • What argument are you pretending was made?

    • Try reading it to the end before your knee goes off.

    • This primarily works by punishing said bad parents not by making the rest of society suffer for their inability.

      That's like 80% of parents at this point. With the need for both parents working, possibly long hours, no particular tech skills, the necessity of phones for modern life and of course the tens of billions pumped in by the massively wealthy/tech companies to make these appealing and addictive.

      This law is stupid, but when the majority of people can't do something don't blame people for it.

  • ...kids are smart and very good at finding workarounds

    • And....????

      If that is your standard for not having a law, then best get rid of all laws, because they get broken too.

      No laws = No crime.

      Oh, and many of the work arounds are supplied to kids by Adults, the same kids of adults who supply kids with guns, alcohol, drugs, porn, etc etc etc.
      • You're misunderstanding. Breaking the law in this case wouldn't be kids getting around the age verification, nor adults giving them a work around. Breaking the law in this case would be failing to program age verification into an operating system.

        Nobody is saying we shouldn't have these laws because they will be broken. We're saying we shouldn't have these laws because they undermine privacy and freedom while doing nothing to actually help the problem they're supposed to be fighting. We should have laws,
        • IRL shops who let underage kids into age controlled areas are the one who get the fine.

          And if you are on the internet, you have no privacy.
          And the US implementation of "freedom" is anything but, especially now.

          • IRL shops who let underage kids into age controlled areas are the one who get the fine.

            And shops in this analogy would be websites, not operating systems.

      • Oh wait nevermind, you're that wacko that believes viewing porn leads to committing prison-worthy crimes, and likened me to the tobacco lobby and told me to do my own research when I questioned it. I
        • It does cause harms....and kids who have abused have higher rates of self deletion, anti-social behaviour, etc
          Normalising porn as "not harmful" for kids is BS.

          https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]

          Access to porn, especially hardcore, while the brain is developing changes a lot of structural things in the brain.
          • I didn't say it was not harmful, I asked for evidence it lead to prison.

            self deletion

            This is something someone trying to monetize internet content says. The fact that you picked it up without realizing says a lot...

            • No, it is real, it happens.
              But I guess so long as you can access pRon you dont care.
              • You're so wrapped up in what you imagine my opinion is that you can't have an actual conversation about this. I'll stop bothering to try now.
  • You can't vote against these because low information voters will get inundated with attack ads against you if you do. They are explicitly crafted to be bad laws that are political poison to vote against.

    Usually when you get one of these what you need to do is wait a little bit and let the fervor die down and then you quietly amend them so that they are completely irrelevant. This is how you get so many stupid laws that don't do anything on the books.

    Gavin newsome for example has already started tal

  • Dumb ass politicians doing dumb ass things ... as usual.

    • Corrupt authoritarians that think they know better then the rest of us. It's to easy to think they are stupid. Don't do them the favor of underestimating them.

  • Any parent who buys their minor child a Linux-based system is going to need to set it up with the parent as admin, and give the kid a non-admin account. Then they are going to have to deal with the fallout of constantly being asked to approve things with their credentials every time the kid wants to do anything. That'll teach 'em :)
    • 50% of parents are below average

      And you can do the same with other OS's, not just linux.

      Forcing linux of non-technical users will just be a complete disaster .
  • It's great that giant corporations are being forced to protect the digital world they created, the responsibility is moving away from the corner shop, from mum and dad businesses. Apple, Microsoft, Google and Redhat have the resources to protect your identity, the sole trader doesn't: This result will be less identity theft.

    Most times, when you want to buy something, you have to verify who you are: You have to provide your name, DoB, and address. We don't think about that every time we wave our credit

  • The child can install a virtual machine, create an account on the virtual machine and set the age to 18 or over. It's a similar technique to installing a VPN to get around the Great Firewall of China (just consider that for a moment). Or the child can simply re-install the OS and not tell their parents.

    Sure, but why would a child bother?

    I haven't read the NY one yet, but I've looked at the CA and CO laws, and while they say admins are required to have a way to set a user's age at account creation time, I di

    • And kids can buy alcohol, watch porn, buy drugs, steal cars, sh00t people, commit gRape, etc etc

      Lets get rid of all laws because none of them are 100% foolproof.

      Sovereign citizens for everyone , they can just say "I do not agree with that law" and they can do as they please.

      That is the ultimate incantation of "freedom"...its called anarchy.

  • This was a half-baked mindshart of an idea that wasn't ready to be made public much less voted on. The mere concept of doing age verification at the OS level is riddled with more problems and loopholes than solutions.

  • Given that "The Internet" already knows your gender, your political leanings, your education level, your income level, your interests, and yes, even your general age, it seems a little crazy to be worried about the privacy implications of age restricted content at this point. Baking it into the OS is crazy, but were not going to go after restricting the Billionaire Bro's freedoms are we - and they are the ones who are hell-bent on addicting children.

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