Some Linux Distros Skirt Age Verification Laws
After California introduced an age verification law recently, open source operating system developers have had to get creative with how they deal with it.
There are new laws coming into play that require minors to register before they are able to use a computer. According to the Register, California is not the only state to take up such laws.
California Assembly Bill 1043 states, "This bill, beginning January 1, 2027, would require, among other things related to age verification with respect to software applications, an operating system provider, as defined, to provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder, as defined, to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device…."
The bill continues from there to state that it requires developers to request a signal "with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider" when the application is downloaded and launched.
What this means is that anyone developing a Linux distribution must provide a system for storing the age or date of birth for every user account on a system.
To get around this, MidnightBSD has decided to add a clause in its license that reads, "California residents are not authorized to use MidnightBSD for desktop use in the state of California effective January 1, 2027."
Other distributions are doing the same thing.
But what happens when more and more states continue to require age verification systems? Some distributions (such as those created by Adenix) forbid residents of any state that follows in California's footsteps from using one of their distributions.
There are other ideas being considered, such as Ubuntu's proposed D-BUS interface change, that would make it such that app stores (such as the Gnome Software app) could read a short age band (categorized range of ages used for software) without storing the actual information.
You can bet that other distribution maintainers will get just as creative to skirt this issue.
