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Age Verification Laws Are Multiplying Like a Virus, and Your Linux Computer Might be Next (itsfoss.com)

submitted 1 day ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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As of today, about half of all U.S. states have some form of age verification law around. Nine of those were passed in 2025 alone, covering everything from adult content sites to social media platforms to app stores.

Right now, California's Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) is all the rage right now, which targets not only websites and apps but also operating systems. Come January 1, 2027, every OS provider must collect a user's age at account setup and provide that data to app developers via a real-time API.

Colorado is also working on a near-identical bill, which we covered earlier.

The EFF's year-end review put it more bluntly: 2025 was "the year states chose surveillance over safety." The foundation's concern, which I concur with, is, where does this stop? Self-reported birthday today, government ID tomorrow? There appears to be no limit to these laws' overreach.

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[–] Hexanimo@kbin.earth 2 points 1 day ago

The non-stop flood of bad things happening makes it very difficult to keep up with anything, even the topics that are most important to us. Which makes it all the easier for new local laws that strip away our rights to be slipped past the citizens who care enough to stop them.

The information overload is the system working as intended for those who seek to exploit us.