New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages

Quoting: LachuBut any other implementation than field in passwd is bad.

I'll quote from the article:

Quoting: Liam Dawerather than relying on self-reported ages.

Hence just having a box that says 'how old are you?' with a simple input is not good enough.

Some options for how it may actually work:

• Scan your ID card to verify (although many people in the USA apparently don't have an ID card because they don't really need it and don't want to spend the money, which to me as a Belgian is wild).


• Scan your driver's license to verify.


• Scan your birth certificate to verify.


• Input your SSN (Social Security Number).


• Submit a blood sample.


• Maybe you'll be able to request some kind of certificate from your city hall which can be scanned.


• Or perhaps something else I didn't think of.

Of course, those could be defeated by having someone else do it for you, so maybe monitors will have iris scanners and keyboards fingerprint scanners so you're constantly being verified (government of the USA, I'll take payment for my contributions to your cause in silver or Ethereum, thanks).

"Hey boys, please everyone get on board this beautiful new ship! Yes, all of you! Mark, Elon, Jeff, Donnie, you get the best seats! The launch will be GREAT! And the name of the ship? Ark Fleet Ship B. Enjoy the ride.

Man. When you finally find out that Neuromancer was unrealistic optimistic, it kinda hurts.

Quoting: emphy

It could go either way with it simply asking for people to enter their date of birth ...

The pro and anti big government politicians in the us seem to have settled on bad government as a compromise.

Silly buggers.

That's the plot twist. The politicians only campaign on anti-big government. After the campaigning is done, all the politicians are for big government. "my top down command and control government is better than your top down command and control government, totes". Vote Blue no matter who or Big Red Wave!! It's all the same; different coat of paint.

You thought the cookie consent nonsense was silly, just wait for this insanity.

I'm a parent of 3 young kids. It's NOT that hard to keep an eye on what your kids are doing online. And it's already a nightmare to try to manage parental controls on most devices.

I'd be happy if they would stop at:

1) Force all media apps (like Smart TV apps) to allow the setting of a parent PIN + a kids profile where parents can set the age of content (like Netflix does it).

2) Social media platforms with over X users should have the ability to create a supervised account for children where parents can see their chats & approve their connections (like Kids Messenger). F*ck SnapChat & their disappearing chats.

3) Router level website filtering that doesn't suck.

---

Frankly the state of parental controls is abysmal. I'm a fricking programmer & I find it all convoluted, annoying & unintuitive. And that's when it's even available.

We don't need age verification - parents will just register all users as 18+ to avoid the headaches of having a device that suddenly can't access things when you need it. Unless you're going to fingerprint ID a user everytime they log in.... this is going to be more surveillance for no benefit.

The parents who care are already doing a pretty good job.

Quoting: tmtvlScan your ID card to verify

I guarantee every device & account in the house will be registered to whoever the most tech savvy adult is & that will be that.

Why yes, I DO have 5 profiles on this Windows PC just for me. They just happen to be called Jane, John, Jimmy, Suzey & John Jr. 😝

Last edited by sherriw on 15 Apr 2026 at 8:49 pm UTC

Quoting: tmtvl

Quoting: LachuBut any other implementation than field in passwd is bad.

I'll quote from the article:

Quoting: Liam Dawerather than relying on self-reported ages.

Hence just having a box that says 'how old are you?' with a simple input is not good enough.

Some options for how it may actually work:

• Scan your ID card to verify (although many people in the USA apparently don't have an ID card because they don't really need it and don't want to spend the money, which to me as a Belgian is wild).


• Scan your driver's license to verify.


• Scan your birth certificate to verify.


• Input your SSN (Social Security Number).


• Submit a blood sample.


• Maybe you'll be able to request some kind of certificate from your city hall which can be scanned.


• Or perhaps something else I didn't think of.

Of course, those could be defeated by having someone else do it for you, so maybe monitors will have iris scanners and keyboards fingerprint scanners so you're constantly being verified (government of the USA, I'll take payment for my contributions to your cause in silver or Ethereum, thanks).

Having someone else do it for you is the least of our worries.
People have direct access to the checking code how do you keep them from making a mod that always says it's good to go?

Also, which wallet address(jk.)?

I know it might not sound like much, but I already reached out to my congressman to ask them to fight this hot garbage.

like I said with the california bill, would *love* to see how this would be enforced with open-source software redistributed through a billion different services with no personal ownership by any person or entity

i can't wait for the multitudes of legislators supporting this nonsense to get hacked and their infomation changed to deny them acces to anything because they're too young.

That'll stop those Operating Systems exploiting young children...........................................................................................................................................................🤔

Quoting: GerarderloperThat'll stop those Operating Systems exploiting young children...........................................................................................................................................................🤔

Ahem Windows, but also its a central function of the OS to actively protect against outside threats, so stopping child exploitation prevention is a lot easier to market as an OS feature than for most other things.

Quoting: ScottCarammelllike I said with the california bill, would *love* to see how this would be enforced with open-source software redistributed through a billion different services with no personal ownership by any person or entity

Now I've read the law I know and understand.
It lies in the "let parents decide" part of the "let parents decide" act.
Devices without it can't be sold in the USA.
Also the big maintainers(Linus, KDE, FSF, RHEL, etc) will face pressure to add the feature.
In the end it will become a build option to add and not add this.

Quoting: LoudTechieAlso the big maintainers(Linus, KDE, FSF, RHEL, etc) will face pressure to add the feature.
In the end it will become a build option to add and not add this.

That would be the easy thing. But that ultimately means nothing as it is removed quicker than it can be added. It is fundamentally impossible add this sort of thing into an open source system and have it "work". And what comes then is the scary part. If anyone can remove said protection, then maybe a "smart" government official will decide that only "approved" systems should be bootable on computers. Bring in "SecureBoot NG-STC", a mandatory security system that makes sure that only lawful systems can be booted on computers! Problem solved!

This is just overreaching mass surveillance in the guise (lies) of "protecting the children". These people have age verification all backwards. They don't care about protecting anyone, they want more of your data and to track your activities.