this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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The optional birthDate field gives other projects a standardized data source for age verification compliance.

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[–] Supercrunchy@programming.dev 71 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Of all terrible proposals coming up in this period, I'm still more-or-less ok with this system because the administrator is still in full control to set whatever date they want, and the field is entirely optional.

They call it "age verification" in the aricle, but there's no 3rd party "verification" whatsoever. It's just a field for the user birth date saved in the user metadata. This is IMHO acceptable because it doesn't force anybody to provide IDs or personal information to some random shady company.

I think calling it "age verification" is a bit confusing and will make people unhappy by default, but might be a smart move to make it compliant with the new laws coming out in this period (the user age was "verified" by the system administrator, after all).

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yep. Its honestly mild as hell.

Essentially legislation that says:

  • app stores have to have age categories to silo children, teens, and adults.
  • OSes have to have a field to collect this data from users when they set up their login, so it can be sent to app stores via API.

Its just a standardized system that should have been done ages ago, but was not a priority for standards orgs, so none stepped up - so legislation appeared.

I strongly argue that it should only apply to commercial OSes and app stores though - as they're the ones that primarily cause issues these laws intent to address.

Linux and FOSS have been caught in the crossfire in a privacy and personal data battle they were not involved in.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 17 points 4 weeks ago

The legislation is entirely to allow Facebook to get away with harming minors, so I wouldn’t call it mild in any sense of the word.

[–] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The boiling pot goes up 1C, then another 1C

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

nope. slippery slope is basically “bad thing can happen, so it will happen” without evidence to support that outcome. here, we have a trajectory. there’s a pattern. it has momentum at this point. it hasn’t changed corse. it’s followed a predictable and proven pattern. It’s done so because the the pressures exerted on this particular system guide the outcome in predictable ways.

that is entirely different than the slippery slope dismissal

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[–] Pinguini@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

More "thin end of the wedge".

[–] whelk@retrolemmy.com 19 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

For me at least, it's less about the age field itself and more about the swift act of compliance with an absurd and overbearing demand

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[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

whereas I , out of pettiness, will switch an entire server to openRC to fuck over these assholes who only care about “line goes up”

[–] Vocalize8711@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

A man of culture, I see. Every system I admin runs SysVInit or OpenRC. I do not need a 'dictator' like systemd.

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[–] Janx@piefed.social 7 points 4 weeks ago

Good points. It's like websites with an age-gate: technically they're trying to keep out users under a certain age (usually minors), but there's no verification. 

But we all need to remember that "protecting the children" and clutching our pearls is still not a good reason to let world governments and giant corporations create laws, demand our papers, keep massive databases of our data, and tie our real-world identities to our online ones. It would be the end of anonymity online, it will get hacked, and they will use it for evil...

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

the lemmy doomers must scratch their suicidal itch

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[–] TrivialBetaState@sopuli.xyz 33 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

I disagree. While I totally understand that it is an optional feature that can enabled and enforced only by others, I am not happy that the developers of systemd rushed to include it into the JSON file with the user info. I would expect the developers to be a bit more resistant to requests by two US states and Brazil. Why are they making it so easy? I guess we will see a resurgence of systemd-free dirstros.

[–] InevitableWaffles@midwest.social 9 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Sorry, minor correction. Not all the systemd developers. One single dickhead wrote it and two chuds who work at microslop merged the PR made this happen. The git structure got hijacked. People are arguing over the validity and necessity of the PR while ignoring the broader goals this serves.

To be frank, I am so sick of this invasive nonsense. I have a son and you know how I'm going to manage access for him? Not fucking letting him have the damn computer before he knows how to use it safely. I grew up on Web 1 and web 2.0. They were much scarier places back in the day and easier to find.

Moreover, this also follows with the trend of sensationalizing threats to make the pearl clutchers feel this is a good choice. Its no different that how the news screams the US is unsafe with tons of violent crime to justify this kind of bullshit when violent crime has been declining on the whole.

This ginned up controversy serves one interest. Control access to knowledge so you never question the State again.

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[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 weeks ago

They can fuck off. Time to check out Artix.

[–] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (8 children)

4 US states; California, New York, Colorado, and Illinois.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

In at least Illinois, this is still in the proposal phase. The bad news is that there are also more draconian proposals that require government issue IDs.

[–] PokerChips@programming.dev 3 points 4 weeks ago

Why are all the "progressive" states first in line?

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[–] voidsignal@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (12 children)

Whatever the old farts will come with their stupid laws, SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, it's Linux. It's always a sudo away from doing (or not) exactly what you (don't) want. I know. This is beyond their comprehension. Adding a field here is ok to me. Because if it ends up being used:

  • I can not set it
  • I can set it wrong
  • I can be 1000y old
  • I can have a different age for every request
  • I can prevent the shit accessing it from accessing it
  • I can uninstall the shit that is trying to access it

The only thing that will hurt from this are companies in CA, CO and wherever.

The average Linux user will not give a single fuck. I know I don't.

[–] eleitl@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

A lot of people born January the first, 1970.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Ahh, another Epoch traveler

[–] whelk@retrolemmy.com 3 points 4 weeks ago

Go team Crono

[–] exaybachae@startrek.website 12 points 1 month ago

I like the idea of a system add-on that randomizes all user age responses with a different date that equals like 25-99years old (assuming 25 years meets the highest age for the applicable standards).

Not too dissimilar from a random MAC address generating feature.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 weeks ago

And really, when was the last time some megacorp tried to access userdb on any machine?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, it's Linux was my band in high school.

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[–] voidsignal@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

And in a twisted way, this may be good. For instance, Microslop will probably spent millions to please their pedos overlords. They will require PC vendors to add cryptographic chips to ensure you cannot change your age, that has been verified after a background check required to buy Windows... We all know how product managers think (if you don't you're lucky, stay the fuck away)

The probable result: more and more people will switch to Linux, where they can be a 3000y old tree.

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[–] texture@lemmy.world 17 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

ohh now theyve gone and done it.

normies are gonna start hating on systremd for this. which will upset the og systemd haters for hating systemd for the wrong reasons, thereby frustrating the og systemd haters and helping them achieve new yet unmet levels of hate for systemd.

just a guess

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 weeks ago

Yes. I also hate feeling confused about where my hatred for SystemD firsts into the bigger picture

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[–] kbal@fedia.io 14 points 1 month ago (9 children)

How to get age verification into linux? Easy, just tell Poettering that if he doesn't hurry up and do it first, some non-systemd approach might become the standard.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

the operating systems job is to negotiate between software and hardware. its there to make sure “my red triangle program draws the same red triangle on anything running this environment regardless of the parts used to build the machine”. its not there to rat you out to a surveillance state or advertisers or meta.

The idea that this protects children is insane and nobody believes this for a second. Hormones happened and little timmy has discovered the wonders of nudity and friction. age attestation doesn’t stop that. it doesn’t stop horrible people from preying on that. it doesn’t teach timmy the difference between fantasy and what a healthy relationship really looks like. it doesn’t address any of those things.

it tracks people. that is all it does. that is all it is for. and considering literal nazis are in power, nobody wants this. it does not solve a problem.

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[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 13 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Which values should I absolutely not manually write into the birthday field Json data, because they could break the DB on the other side when storing unsanitized input?

[–] massacre@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

Asking for a friend?

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 9 points 1 month ago (5 children)

its age attestation, not age verification (saying it vs proving it). also, dont give systemd shit about this bc they are just covering their asses in case more restrictive laws go through.

[–] Unleaded8163@fedia.io 11 points 4 weeks ago

They're not even really covering their asses. They don't make an OS, they make a small but important art of many distros. They're providing a clean, standardized way for Linux distros from RedHat to Ageless to comply with the law if the choose to. Some distros will comply with the law to the letter, others will not comply out of spite. At least the ones that comply will do it in a standard way.

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I am kinda giving them shit for when someone pointed out that they're essentially storing PII completely unsecured and their response was "you should use app isolation anyway". That is not a good security model.

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[–] whelk@retrolemmy.com 7 points 4 weeks ago

I think the fact that they acted so quickly to comply is the problem

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

I had problems with systemd before... but this capitulation to what is clearly an unconstitutional demand...

fuck systemd devs. fuck them all.

[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I see a lot of people freaking out about this, but adding this as an optional field was the right call.

This way, distros can choose for themselves whether or not they want to use it during account creation.

[–] realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 3 points 4 weeks ago

At least someone gets it.

It's kinda crazy how many people here claim to use linux or even actually use linux, but apparently don't know what the operating system does and what the system manager does.

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[–] Valarie@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 weeks ago

With that I wish to share this with everyone https://agelesslinux.org/

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