Why can't OS providers say that they don't operate in California anymore and be done with it?
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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This happens when the people who define a law have no idea what they are talking about.
Even our central controller device would fall under this regulation. Which is so stupid that it hurts.
I'm sure every ATM, every kiosk, any machine accessible by a child will be updated to detect and immediately adjust it's function accordingly without any issues /s
Nope. You can't enforce it.
Oh buddy, watch them try.
It's always hilarious to me that these politicians are incapable of picking up the phone and calling someone who knows a fucking thing about technology.
I will roll my own distro before I provide my data to the state or the corpos
No it is not. There is no way this is enforceable. At all.
That sounds positive. For us to see what you see, can you elaborate?
Not the original commenter, but from what I've read, the laws would require operating systems to collect name and DOB in the user account setup process. No facial scans, photos, IDs or other verification required, so it seems very easily bypassed by simply lying.
And beyond that, couldn't one just access the non-Cali version? If they want me to verify my age, I'll just add lying about where I live to the list.
Fortunately, I'm from California-east (New Jersey), and we have actual problems over here, and so this isn't on the list. Yet.
Without a key you won't be able to access restricted material.
Excuse me while I die laughing. Sure you regulated a site on the internet... But did you regulate all of them?
See also: the completely non existent piracy sites... And let's be honest every other thing that they totally scrubbed off the internet...
It'd be a shorter list to list things they successfully got rid of...
I'll start:
...
Other states are going to have the same kind of laws...and some go farther than Cali is going to right now: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/03/many-more-us-states-are-planning-or-already-have-operating-system-age-verification-laws/
This is just the latest.
so now we may have a forked/pirate linux distros because people dont want to be age restricted and phone home.
@michael@piefed.chrisco.me @peertube@lemmy.world
It's not just US states. Brazil got a new law (Lei nº 15.211 de 17/09/2025) which practically requires a similar, dystopian thing. Still Brazilian media outlets (and Brazilians around me) aren't even talking about this law, which will come into effect as soon as March 17th. What a depressing timeline. 😓
I already have several Linux isos in my torrent.
Arch will probably have something that is plug and play to remove haha.
Installation instructions will be in the wiki, should one need them due to regional laws.
Unless there are any real consequences from having an OS on your hardware that doesn't comply, I would just expect most Linux users to grab their install images from mirrors hosted out of state. Even if they amend it to require the mirrors to try and locate visitors to automatically redirect California residents to the tampered images, a VPN would solve that pretty quickly. This just seems like posturing and maybe testing the waters with public reaction, but I'd be more concerned about what the crazier thing is that they'll ramp up to next if people don't raise a fuss over this one.
It really isn't.
I guess going onwards most people will have their birthdate on 01/01/1970.
what a coincidink that's my birthdate!
Just because a law is passed, doesn't mean you need to follow it. Just act like the 1%