Support us on Patreon
PayPalThe US-wide operating system age verification bill we covered recently, the "Parents Decide Act", now actually has the bill published to read.
As a reminder - this bill has not yet passed, it has only been introduced and so it could change a lot before being approved, or it could get thrown out. It's early days yet but the important bit to remember is that it has bipartisan support across both the Democrats and Republicans.
The bill H. R. 8250 actually seems somewhat reasonable, especially compared to some other state-specific bills that we've seen. In this case, they only want you to enter your date of birth to confirm that you're over 18.
If you're under 18, you'll need a parent or guardian to verify a date of birth. It also requires a system for application developers to access this date of birth and to store the information securely. And, additionally, have features for parents to control what under 18s can access on a device.
What they don't say, is how a parent would verify a date of birth, it seems a quite ambiguous on that. Presumably, unless they do plan to expand on that, it would just use the honour system of a parent ticking a box and entering their date of birth to confirm.
This act would cover every single operating system. They define it pretty clearly too as "software that supports the basic functions of a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device" and providers they define as "a person that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device" - which is incredibly broad on who and what this applies directly to.
Remember though - if such a bill passes (and similar bills have already passed in certain US states), it's just a first step to be expanded upon and things can get much worse for our own control and privacy. First it's date of birth storing, next it's ID scanning and more. We all know how these things end up.
And, even if you're not in the US, these types of acts will still affect you due to how a large part of the tech industry is based in the US.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
None of the computers are "theirs", they are not the primary users.
In what world do they expect even well off people like us to provision a separate computer for each person? The kids don't need their own thing, they also shouldn't have unfettered access to screens, so they won't get their own system until they can acquire one themselves.
Just this single requirement has already so many problems attached to it.
StalePopcorn 12 hours ago
Very, very sad and frustrating times lay ahead.
Quoting: Savor592What if I want to use my device offline? Never connect it to the internet. Old game consoles?The law actually doesn't seem to specify being online.
Just this single requirement has already so many problems attached to it.
It puts limits on how this data when shared online should be used, but not that it must be shared online.
Quoting: grigiIt doesn't make sense to have this kind of data attached to a device like a computer. My kids will just as happily use Grans computer (or ours) as the school computer to fiddle around on Scratch for example.It's not attached to the computer it's attached to the user account(poor FreeBSD doesn't have accounts)
None of the computers are "theirs", they are not the primary users.
In what world do they expect even well off people like us to provision a separate computer for each person? The kids don't need their own thing, they also shouldn't have unfettered access to screens, so they won't get their own system until they can acquire one themselves.
+ Totally implementable.
+ not a giant big tech boon.
+ simple law
- easy to circumvent.
- I don't trust them to not turn this in something problematic.
- also applies to IOT and servers.
This will mostly result in the automation of these cookie banner like age gates.
Quoting: LoudTechie- also applies to IOT and servers.This is the funniest part. Whose age should I set on the fridge? Mine, or the yogurt's? 😆
Anyway it's nothing particularly new. When I set up gmail accounts for my kids, I just added 10 years or whatever, so they don't get blocked from accessing stuff and I don't get pestered with requests for permission or whatever. If I installed such age-requiring OS today, I would do the same.
Quoting: pbYours.Quoting: LoudTechie- also applies to IOT and servers.This is the funniest part. Whose age should I set on the fridge? Mine, or the yogurt's? 😆
Anyway it's nothing particularly new. When I set up gmail accounts for my kids, I just added 10 years or whatever, so they don't get blocked from accessing stuff and I don't get pestered with requests for permission or whatever. If I installed such age-requiring OS today, I would do the same.
The issue is more do you want to do that for your doorbell, your fridge, your car, your bike lamp and your thermostat. That'll be a lot of work.
I think point of sale settings might be legal in this sense, but would telling your birth date when buying things.
All I can hope in this sense is that I misunderstood:
General purpose computing device to mean a device that can do any computing task, instead of is designed to do any computing task.
I do not known, why operating system should provide check boxes to allow/disallow what children can do? I understood why creating API to ask how old child is, but criteria OS should provide check boxes? How to implement this, what rights should be settable, etc?
Quoting: LoudTechieIt's not attached to the computer it's attached to the user account(poor FreeBSD doesn't have accounts)They don't have their own accounts either. How many home PC's actually have separate accounts? I mean houses where chaos rules?
Virtually zero, that's what.
That's my point.
Quoting: LoudTechieMy review.Prepare for the logrolling to begin. I doubt this bill will stay simple for long.
+ Totally implementable.
+ not a giant big tech boon.
+ simple law
- easy to circumvent.
- I don't trust them to not turn this in something problematic.
- also applies to IOT and servers.
This will mostly result in the automation of these cookie banner like age gates.
Last edited by naimad on 16 Apr 2026 at 3:46 pm UTC
spacemonkey 5 hours ago
https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/european-age-verification-app-keep-children-safe-online-2026-04-15_en
US take not please. We don't need your BS.
PlayingOnLinuxphone 2 hours ago
Quoting: spacemonkeyonly the minimal required information is passed on to the app or website.Which is already the maximum amount of information passed to the app or website. If you are under 18 you will switch that date once you become mature, so they know exactly your birth. For us adults no issue so far, but for all upcoming generations it means a fully transparent birthday.
Can't we just begin to teach our kids first? Where is the talk about improving schools? They could learn stuff that is also useful as adult, not just as child.
How to setup OpenMW for modern Morrowind on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck
How to install Hollow Knight: Silksong mods on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck