For those in the US, bill HR 8250 would require age verification for operating systems on a national level: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/all-info
If you’re in the US, please contact your Senators and Representatives and let them know how you feel about age verification laws for operating systems and bill HR 8250:
I think it really means age verification for certain activities on operating systems.
I imagine an OS not using the internet would not require it.?
Some states have already passed laws and they’ve been so broad they’ve affected more than just operating systems connected to the Internet. Check out this change of license to a calculator operating system to accommodate the new laws: db48x/LEGAL-NOTICE.md at stable · c3d/db48x · GitHub
Expert scientists in security and privacy have written a letter calling for a moratorium on age verification mandates: https://csa-scientist-open-letter.org/ageverif-Feb2026
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also documented risks:
No - it’s much bigger than that…
Some countries are adopting laws that a WHOLE Operating System needs age verification… There’s a few south american countries “enforcing” this…
Australia opened a can of worms… And a recent study by the UK into Australia’s age verification enforcement laws shows that it doesn’t even work!
So much shit going on right now - that no actual sane person or user requested…
AI eating up carbon, and water and RAM and GPU and storage keeping it out of the hands of actual humans…
Age verification enforcement at the Operating System level…
Removing the X-Select-Buffer from Gnome…
Launching a diversionary war against a country that doesn’t have nukes (by two countries that DO HAVE NUKES!) on the grounds that it might or could, have nukes, and causing the worst oil crisis since the 1970’s just so the domestic drongos stop caring about Epstein…
That is the middle mouse button paste thing?
I would really miss that.
Have you considered all sides to the story in regards to the Middle East? The Age verification thing could be another hijack of valid policies.
It may be more like incompetant government highjacking itself
Can a government really control what a free operating system does. ?
There is no ‘point of sale’ where it could monitor OS function.
If I were to program my own OS at home , how would laws be able to control it? … FOSS is like that … real home-baked software.
Unfortunately, governments can fine or even, in some cases, put people in jail for breaking laws. So, if someone was to create a distro spin or try to share an operating system in some public way, they could be liable if they don’t comply with the law. This is even more of an issue if you specifically live in a country where those laws apply. There are arguments that source code is a form of free speech and that these types of laws limit free speech. However, it would be up to the courts to decide. A safe course of action is to contact your legislators, representatives and other government officials before these proposals become laws in your area and to make them aware of the negative effects these laws have on free speech, creativity and innovation. This issue is not just a problem for the US. Other countries around the world are considering age verification laws. Brazil has already passed a law.
It is worse than that. Age verification at the OS level is a King Herod approach .
We cant allow governments to hamstring all the innocent OS users , when the real aim is to protect minors from some unhealthy internet activities.
As I’ve said elsewhere
Big Brother is verifying your age
I can remember having to make Statutary Declaration that I was still alive … in order for the government to continue paying my super.
They do have to keep some personal info on file.
That is universal, i have 3 small pensions, every year they all seperatly send me a letter to sign, which i have to get counter signed. I always ask our mayor as he is a personal friend and has known me for all my time here. Every time he asks to see my passport, and french identity card and i have to say I am alive before he will sign it, before I had to also confirm my full name, think he is getting ready to retire so no longer asks that bit!
Standing there is not proof enough!
Silly thing is he welcomes me as Paul and we exchange little stories on village life, but then demands the proof of my name.
How does age verification work on a database or web server? How does age verification work on something like AWS, where you might be using a server instance for just a few minutes during a traffic peak, then it gets used by someone else, possibly dozens of times per day? And if server OSes are exempt, why not just install everything as a server OS? Would it be illegal to use a VPN to download a Linux image from a mirror in a country that does not require age verification? How much liability is on the end user as opposed to the OS vendor/developer?
Who is the age verification authority? A for-profit business? How do you verify the age of a child? No driver’s license, no passport, and birth certificate is apparently not good enough. Will the government be sharing SSN data with private for-profit businesses to do authentication? New identity theft possibilities are opening up!
It is about time these questions were debated publicly and answered.
Politicians are good with words but poor on technical detail.
The closest thing we have is a drivers licence … it is age verified and is issued at somewhere near the age of maturity… but it does not seem to prevent underage driving offences.
This is nothing more than another stake being driven into the heart of freedom. The gathering of more information into the Palantir God of anti-privacy which at some point will foster the Digital ID movement and eventual digital prison. It is all connected.
Thank you for the link. It helped me get my Representatives email address, and I sent a message that not only requested that no age verification law be enacted, but also suggested a better, more enforceable way - to require that all OSes include child protective software, and that parents be responsible for enabling this software as well as that governments should be providing for parental education about the dangers their children face in this connected world, and provide them with ways to teach their children how to avoid or at least mitigate these dangers.
Ernie
Well done Ernie
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead