You've seen the news about various US states (and even a US-wide bill!) for operating systems to implement age checking - but exemptions could cause headaches.
GamingOnLinux covered the exemptions that have made it in for the bills in Colorado and California, and now the dust is settling I've had a bit of time to look at the details more closely and think on it a bit more. And so, I'm left with even more concerns than before.
This isn't just a case of Linux and open source being special or somehow better, and not even getting into the debate of the "privacy for thee but not for me" angle due to more data collection - but a major concern on the actual implementation of all of it.
On Linux machines we already have DRM (Digital rights management) headaches from streaming platforms that limit things like resolution (or some just don't work at all), due to a lower level of Widevine support. And then there's also all the anti-cheat issues with games completely blocking Linux too. Now, we're moving into the land of age-checking on devices and operating systems which could potentially bring its own set of hurdles to overcome.
When all these laws get stamped and approved, what happens when you run an operating system (let's say Fedora or Ubuntu) and some web service or application is forced to do age checking and verification (or they face massive fines). Unless Linux distributions / desktop environments do end up implementing something that correctly adheres to these laws, what do you think will happen? Those services / apps could very likely just entirely block Linux in certain regions - or even all regions if it's Linux to prevent any issues for them.
That only adds to the list of issues that Desktop Linux faces when it comes to user adoption. And given how overall fragmented the Linux desktop is, we're in for quite a messy time. One distribution might work, another might not - that's just even more confusing for people picking between Linux distributions and desktop environments.
Being exempt from building or using the system doesn't save Linux and open source from being locked out of the room by companies who then require it by law. This also isn't US specific, other countries are working on these types of laws too.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: STiATAge checking on OS-Level is nothing more than a patch on a severed limb.There's really not much power in a company having the answer to the question if a user is 18+ or not.
It solves nothing.
It just gives problems and more power to corporations.
Nor is there a problem with that information.
Quite frankly, it could be public, next to all our profiles, and it wouldn't really matter.
I'll tell you right here: I'm 18+. Crazy, huh?
Feel powerful now? No? Exactly.
If it was done reasonably, it could just use the same kinds of service that already exists in many countries for citizens/residents to identify themselves for various services (banking, taxes, insurances, etc.), which usually means some kind of app verification.
The one asking for that information then only gains the minimum amount of data from that source (whatever it is they require to do their thing) and you can still just decide to not use given service.
So for this case, the only information would be "Is this user 18+ or not?" (or different age group ranges, whatever).
The one holding all that information is then just whoever you entrusted with that info already (mobile provider, bank, whatever).
The information isn't given out to any rando, either, but only to entities that have been checked first.
Honestly, this issue has already been solved in many places and nobody makes a fuss about it there.
The only problem would lie in a shitty implementation that would leak way too much information than what was initially asked.
Which... I won't lie, in some places is probably a possibility.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 26 May 2026 at 7:38 pm UTC
PlayingOnLinuxphone 2 hours ago
Quoting: The_Real_BittermanAs a fun side note "Deutsche Bahn AG", the major train operator here in Germany, blocked all Linux users to buy tickets or even look at train schedules online if they detected "Linux" in the Browsers user agent... You could even trigger it by setting the user agent on Windows to Linux. Blocked!I was on a developer meeting this weekend in Germany and was affected by this bullshit. A friend is working on trains and told me the DB did not even know themselves what is causing this issue ... sounds like a vibe-coded bug, lol.
I then used railway-gtk to get access and it worked at first, but next day also blocked ...
Next I tried to get a Flixtrain route booked, they did not accept my legit payed email address with own domain. German public infrastructure is as bad as media tell us ... But this is a different story.
Quoting: CaldathrasAren't we already there with websites that offer the "login with your Google Account" pop-up?I never had any issue to create an own account, since I do not own a Google acc. As long as this is optional, people just expose themselves and until now I never saw I was forced to use the Google acc.
Quoting: TheSHEEEPThere's really not much power in a company having the answer to the question if a user is 18+ or not.Again someone spread these false information. Age verification is a huge problem. Sure, you are 18+ at the beginning, you do not expose a lot of information. But with your opinion you force all kids below 18 to expose their birth-dates. Once they hit 18 they have to change the entry to "being adult". Even if they do it a week after their birthday, there are less than 300.000 people each day that become 18. In additional services also often know where you are coming from (where you connect to their page from) and may collect further data and you are exposed very easily.
Nor is there a problem with that information.
The almost perfect birthday is one of the best identifiers a company can get. In comparison your sex only half the amount of people from 8 billion to 4 billion while the exact birthday tells "you are one of around 267k people" with no additional information.
Infact they seem to like them with the creepiest grin.
No surprise there.
mr-victory 1 hour ago
The almost perfect birthday is one of the best identifiers a company can get.I have a bunch of microsoft fonts installed on my linux laptop and just that immediately nails me down to 1 person according to eff's fingerprinting test😭
Mountain Man 49 minutes ago
Quoting: TheSHEEEP... The one asking for that information then only gains the minimum amount of data from that source...Ever heard the phrase "The nose of the camel inside the tent flap"? It doesn't take long before the whole camel is inside. While this might start with the minimum amount of your private information being exposed, how long before they start asking for the maximum amount?
Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphone... The almost perfect birthday is one of the best identifiers a company can get. In comparison your sex only half the amount of people from 8 billion to 4 billion while the exact birthday tells "you are one of around 267k people" with no additional information.I highly doubt that, for the very reason that the identifiers that they already use today can pinpoint you basically exactly.
Already back in 2006 researchers could use anonymized search data from AOL to identify individual people (down to name, age and address). Not only have this been finetuned over the 20 years since they, today we also have companies like Palantir.
So this age verification is not the government or companies wanting to gain access to more information. Following the money we get to META and it looks like one of their reasons is to create high barriers to entry for competition. From the gov side this most likely is wanting to demonstrate that "they are doing something for the safety of the children" since that makes them look good, if it works or not they do not care since this are about the image of doing something.
Quoting: Mountain ManThe problem with this theory is that the Camel is so far inside the Tent already that you have to buy a larger tent.Quoting: TheSHEEEP... The one asking for that information then only gains the minimum amount of data from that source...Ever heard the phrase "The nose of the camel inside the tent flap"? It doesn't take long before the whole camel is inside. While this might start with the minimum amount of your private information being exposed, how long before they start asking for the maximum amount?
Last edited by F.Ultra on 26 May 2026 at 9:58 pm UTC
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