Linux locked out of age-gated services because it doesn’t have the necessary verification features and adoption stifles in 3…2…
But seriously do you think it’s really a good thing that the country seems to be moving forward with requiring ID to be online, and suddenly they’re like “oh pff Linux? Yeah don’t worry about that shit, it can be exempt whatever” like that makes it for Special Boys who can Keep Their Freedom and Tendies?
No man, it’ll be DRM’d off the internet. They’ll keep using it for servers since servers don’t need to verify their age to clients. This feels like an attempt to kill Linux on the desktop.
The correct thing would be to not have this law at all.
Good news! Linux isn’t getting “locked out” of age-gated services (those checks happen at the site itself for ID vendors, digital ID wallets), not via the OS. There’s no mechanism in these laws that transmits an OS age signal to websites, so there’s nothing to lock Linux out of. Sites just fall back to their own verification, same as they must for any desktop browser.
The “they’ll quietly exempt Linux as a trap” framing also doesn’t match reality: California’s AB 1856 passed 69-0 explicitly redefining “OS provider” to exclude GPL/MIT/BSD/Apache software, Colorado exempts open-source OS outright, and the exemption bans requesting age signals unless legally required , the opposite of a DRM channel. Servers are untouched because there’s no obligation on servers.
That said, the core worry is legitimate: these laws are scope creep waiting to happen. An earlier draft of AB 1856 would have forced browsers and websites to demand age signals and, that would have hit Linux hard. It died this time, but nothing says it stays dead. So the threat isn’t today’s statutes, it’s the next round of amendments, plus hybrid cases like SteamOS sitting in legal gray zones.
You’re right, the law shouldn’t exist at all, and the trajectory deserves skepticism.
However, the mechanism is not there Nobody’s DRM’ing Linux off the internet, YET.
The fight is making sure that stays true.
Who wrote this
BTW System76, the company behind their Linux laptops and the Linux desktop COSMIC, was fighting hard against the law to make exemptions for Open Source software. That’s important for them, because System76 operates in California. So I think they are big part to thank for here: Colorado and California Exempt Open Source from Age Attestation (May 2026)
Kids are gonna learn Linux to watch porn and I couldn’t be happier about it.
California should make Windows as annoying to use as possible so more people switch to Linux
Windows already is annoying to use.💔
Translation: there’s no way to force open source software to follow the law as it was written.
It would wildly fuck with enterprise systems because you would have to have a way to verify age for the users of EVERY system. The way it is now you would have to verify the age of users of iot and smart devices. You have to have id to turn on your lights or use the refrigerator.
«We really dont wanna deal with these nerds, lets just ignore them for now»
Also: << the nerds aren’t going to do any of this shit, so… let’s look like the good guys by exempting them so we don’t look terrible when the nerds show how obviously this is all security theater >>
Whilst this would be better than blanket age verification, I feel it’s a mediocre outcome for the wrong fight.
Rather than taking a carve out for FOSS, the right fight is to get the
online anonymity banage verification legislation taken out completely.If we let ourselves be satisfied with a carve out for those of us who are technically literate enough to sidestep early implementations anyway, we let the status quo change, until eventually they will come back for FOSS with the justification:
“well, EVERYONE ELSE submits to age verification, why should FOSS be any different?!”
or more likely:
“${scaryThreat} now uses FOSS to commit ${heinousCrime} against ${peopleWeSuddenlyCareAboutForPoliticalCapital} so we HAVE to protect the kids on FOSS now too!! #thoughtsAndPrayers #wontSomebodyThinkOfTheChildren”
Instead of age verification, it should be improved parental controls. Make it more obvious how to set them up. The initial boot for windows first page could be “are you setting this up for an adult or child?”, even require shops selling computers to make sure customers understand that.
Make the parents take the responsibility they are currently somehow managing to avoid.
This is always my position. It’s not the state that raises kids. It is not the state that is responsible.
