Just do what MidnightBDS did. MidnightBSD has decided to change its license to prohibit use in California. There, problem sorted. Anyone in California wanting MBDS can simply use a vpn. BTW, MBDS is one of those happy kind of discoveries (serendipity?) I’ve just made. Check them out.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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This right here. It's not about "protecting children." It never HAS been about "protecting children." It never WILL be about "protecting children." It's about surveillance and control. The money class is desperate for ways to identify you online that can get around your use of a VPN. They want to know who you are, where you are, where you go, who you talk to, what you buy and what your politics are. And if you think they'll be satisfied with just an age check for porn sites, you are hopelessly naive.
Fortunately, when someone or something "damages" the Internet, like these sorts of laws, the Internet routes around that damage. If a website won't accept my connection because of an age check, I'm just going to move on the something else. These idiot lawmakers act like we don't have a choice. I say they're wrong.
Just think about the children™ bro. We are doing everything to save the children™ bro. Trust me bro.
Just add a "Not To Be Used In California" note.
If - yep, a VERY big If - that happened it would at least trigger a larger discussion. At the moment, no-one in the general public knows about this erosion of privacy.
Yeah that's literally what a lot of aftermarket motorcycle parts say.
It's not exclusive to California.
Many years ago it was forbidden to export strong cryptography from the US, like a giant "not for use outside US".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States
It's fine IMO to do the reverse now, even if it becomes the entire US.
I'm not sure if that law will pass/has passed, but I wonder how it affects embed systems, vending machines, etc, since all of them have OS in them. For Linux this can already be implemented by using groups for age so they can claim the OS already offers this and be done, then it's up to the apps to query it and most apps wouldn't need to so that's that.
Does each VM need to be verified, or the hypervisor? What about docker? Does memtest need to ask for age verification?
Yup, it's very clear there wasn't a single person who understands about OSs in any of the proceedings for this law.
Language is something you can teach, but it isn’t really something that’s easily controlled. The term “OS” already means something like ‘a space that lets you interact with and manage apps and services on a personal computing device’ for most people. This is the case because of how its used with Apple, Google, Windows, Steam, Meta, etc…
So the literal operating systems of other kinds of equipment, such as a vending machine, might eventually end up with its own moniker if the distinction becomes necessary.
I’m not sure if that law will pass/has passed,
It has already passed the legislature and been signed into law, but not become operative yet, won't until 2027-01-01.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
Linux will not care, if some corporate distros sell out, no matter. Just spin up any other million distros which are not [redacted]. Or just gentoo it.
Literally no reason to use a slur.
Perhaps strong words, but i absolutely despise this pointless topic. i am not in US jurisdiction (not that it would make any difference if i was), i don't want their nonsense and i believe very strongly against it. we have enough of our own nonsense from politicians who understand nothing to deal with.
Anyway i edited it now
“Anyway i edited it now”
Very easy to do. Thank you very much.
Linux is like that spider swatting meme where the spider gets squished, and then it explodes into a million smaller spiders that run every direction.
another advantage of foss
Nothing GNU or proper free software can care, because it would violate freedom number zero.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition#The_Four_Essential_Freedoms
I didn't realize it at first, but Pornhub has also been requesting device based age verification legislation.
The California law essentially allows a parent to create a child account on a device and gives a way for apps to query it.
I'm not sure what PH is asking for, but it doesn't sound like the same thing.
Nothing a VPN pointed to New York can’t fix.
NY is next
New York Senate Bill S8102A goes further. It "requires manufacturers of internet-enabled devices to conduct age assurance" to check all users' ages, and provide this info to "all websites, online services, online applications and mobile applications" – as well as app stores.
Ugh
A couple months ago Glock redesigned their pistols to mechanically block the ability for people to stick a cheep part in it that makes it effectively shoot full auto. About 24 hours later someone worked out a way around it.
Where there's a will, there's a way. This shit will be cracked by the end of the week it goes into effect.
That bit about requiring app stores to query an online account to get the user's age bracket, that really concerns me.
Good thing that isn't what was passed.
Strictly speaking the text is "A developer shall request a signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched" and the video didn't address the "or a covered application store" part, whatever that means.
Every app does not need to check your birth date. An app will be able to query if the user is within one of a few broad ranges of age (e.g. under 18), but an app only has to do that if it needs to comply with some other legislation.
that's just foot on the door.
Who exactly gains anything from forcing lets say Krita to implement an age check?
i don't get your question. what do software like krita has to do with anything?
The comment you answered to said not all software has to implement age checks; only those who actually deal with age relevant content. You said it would be a foot in the door. So... who's foot to do what?
i mean in the sense this sets up the infrastructure for and normalizes invasive identification systems that could in the future be used to say, demand your id or face scanning for you to even access the internet or use computers at all, not just age restricted stuff. of course we can only speculate how they could use this for nefarious purposes.
as in a slippery slope, might have been a better way to put it.
How would the current approach help?
Its not invasive yet (no third party, no ID, no verification; its basically just another user controlled date field that is not even exposed). So it is not lowering any barrier in that regard.
It's also not a helpful intermediary step for harder measures, because as soon as you want a third party to do attestation, storing that on a user controlled device is just unnecessary complexity and risk of circumvention. It would be easier and safer (for those introducing it) to just let the attesting party talk to the providers directly.
by socially normalizing consent for it, and setting up the initial infrastructure for it to work.
Isn't that level already socially normalized? Every second website asks me for my birthday to derive my age for as long as I can think. Many of them ask me basically every time I use them (even Steam, where I am logged in and my payment history alone should imply that I am old enough).
no, you are not forced to input any truthful information nor credit cards or id checks or facial recognition just yet, except for banks and stuff. being forced to "because of the kids!" and having it enforced at the OS level against your will changes everything.
most sites (that i use at least) usually have multiple payment methods with varying levels of "privacy" that doesn't really force you to identify yourself to them.
The US bills I have read also don't enforce any real age (how could they). They require the birthday to be stored on the device for the device to reply with the info if the user is within a certain age bracket. But nowhere did I see anything that would force users to store their truthful birthday. All that it would do is making the already existing age checks much more convenient and giving parents the opportunity to make them slightly more secure.
still a foot on the door. if we assume the real goal is to identify every internet user, a mandatory os-level system for storing a a bit of personal data is definitely step number one.
once they have the data and the internet adopts this, requiring transmission or broadening the scope bit by bit is just a few updates away.
From an acceptance point of view there is no difference in forcing providers to implement an API to talk to your device or forcing providers to talk to a central service (or at least any service implementing a certain interface).
If the goal was for more surveillance, they could have immediately gone for that route.
They could also have kept the current "ask the user" approach and mandated website providers to store these information. That would have been a much smaller step and would have brought them closer to big brother as well.
Now they went for an approach that takes a step away from what we already have, making it more privacy friendly. Websites don't have to ask (and potentially store) your birthday anymore and can still stay compliant.
Slippery nipples!!!!
Actual bad laws are being passed, why not focus on them instead of hyperventilating about a law. That doesn't do what people are claiming it does.
yes, and i'm calling attention to one of them. blindly accepting their premise is defeat right out of the gate.
No, it's not.
Protecc the children protecc the children protect the ped...