this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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I've only absorbed bits and pieces of the story, but allegedly there's an age verification push happening on Linux? What's the full story here?

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 38 points 22 hours ago (8 children)

An optional field was added to the userdb to allow storing birthdate. That's it.

An optional field in the userdb JSON object. It's not a policy engine, not an API for apps. We just define the field, so that it's standardized iff [sic] people want to store the date there, but it's entirely optional.

https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/

[–] Heyla@quokk.au 1 points 2 hours ago

Presenting information deliberately out of context, stripped down to its bare essentials, amounts to spreading misinformation.

[–] mhzawadi@lemmy.horwood.cloud 1 points 6 hours ago

As long as I dont need to install a GUI on all my headless servers I couldn't give 2 hoots, also while I'm at it. As long as I dont need to workout how I get a GUI on an Aws instance that is headless

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 7 points 15 hours ago

Fix: a useless field was added by a random non-core contributor, and merged by a Microsoft employee.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 22 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 14 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Also, it wasn't a core maintainer who created the PR, which you want for something this sensitive.

[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 7 points 20 hours ago

Why would it matter who it was that contributed the code?

[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 5 points 20 hours ago

It's just an extra field that was added to the UserDB. The methods used to access that information have not chaged AFAIK.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 18 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

entirely optional

Until its not. Rome wasnt destroyed in a day

[–] Solumbran@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Yes, but the slippery slope is also a fallacy.

Caution is better than panic.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 13 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

There's ample evidence there is an organised international push for these mass surveillance efforts in many countries all at once, do you deny this?

[–] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 10 points 19 hours ago

I would argue, for now, this is malicious compliance from the open source community.

Adding an optional field in the UserBD to store an age covers the requirements of the law, without trying to help with the spirit of the law

But I do understand the boiling the frog side

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 16 hours ago

Assuming some jurisdictions implement some kind of device based age restrictions, should linux just not exist in those places?

[–] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 2 points 20 hours ago

Lets be cautious and remove the mechanism.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 11 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

iff [sic]

In case you are unaware, "iff" is short for "if and only if", i.e. bidirectional implication. It's not a typo.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 20 hours ago

It is a word, but I don't think it's really applicable here. The standard exists even if no one wants to use it or ever does.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

iff [sic]

Brought to you by the same people as HTTP_REFERER, I assume ;-)

[–] The_Decryptor@aussie.zone 4 points 14 hours ago

iff = "if and only if"

Basically saying the field's there if you need to comply with the law, but otherwise you don't need to use it, just like the other fields.

[–] Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly, making it possible for admins (parents) to set up systems with rules based on age for their many children

[–] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 2 points 20 hours ago

They can install some parental controls from the package manager. This doesnot need to be in fucking systemd.