Nanny state discovers Linux, demands it check kids' IDs before booting

functionmouse

We have got to do something about the bad powerful people!

iamnothere

I think it’s more that they have no idea that Linux exists, or headless operating systems used on servers and embedded devices. They are trying to legislate based on the experience of having an iPhone. FOSS (and frankly all systems that don’t use walled garden commercial app stores) should be exempted from this, at a minimum.

NoraCodes

This headline is misleading. The California law requires that the OS store and provide the age bracket. It does not require that any verification take place. I am not arguing that this is a good idea, but it is simply false that the law requires that Linux 'check kids' IDs before booting'. The New York law is worse, and should be opposed, but the article only mentions it at the end - and even then, we actually don't know what the verification mechanism would be. I've heard a proposal that "age verification passes" be sold at liqour stores and porno shops, for example, who already seem to do an acceptable job of checking ID without destroying people's privacy.

m132

> The real problem is this hodgepodge of laws; it's the growth of the surveillance state. From voting rights in the United States, facing Trump's Orwellian-named SAVE America Act, to Ring's doggie tracking system that can also be used to follow people, to Trump booting Anthropic to the side for refusing to allow its AI tools to be used for mass surveillance, privacy is on the decline. I understand it is popular to pick on the current administration, and there are plenty of rightful reasons to, but let's not forget this has been happening way before either of Trump's terms (see: KYC laws). The only difference between then and now is that current administration has essentially taken a mask-off approach, so we get to see this discussion finally brought up by mainstream media outlets.

pelagicAustral

Be nice to hear Linus' take on it.

hsnewman

Biased headline indicates misleading contents.

jmclnx

> Jef Spaleta, the Fedora Project leader, isn't sure of the legalities, but he thinks it might be as simple as mapping "uid to usernames and group membership and having a new file in /etc/ that keeps up with age." Personally I think Linux distros should ignore this law and put a disclaimer on their download sites. I expect OpenBSD will do just that. If Linux decides to make this a requirement, I guess I know what OS I will move to next. Anyway, Instead of a new file, there are optional fields in /etc/passwd that can be used for "age". These fields can be added as comma separated fields. But , maybe he is thinking of making the new file readable only by root ?

randusername

Many parents will not be proactive in protecting their children online and I think this is a legitimate societal problem. The idea of algorithmic feeds for adult content that descend into increasingly "engaging" depictions is something I find horrifying. I do not want my kids to experience those "loss of innocence" moments too soon by letting their curiosity lead them into things they are not equipped to confront yet. Hell, I still have those moments as an adult on occasion. There has to be steps we can take as a society to address these legitimate challenges ourselves so that governments can no longer hide behind them in tinkering with mechanisms for stability and control. Maybe a "sunlight disinfects" approach.

dv_dt

Hmm the Reg article seems to have missed the reporting on Meta being behind many of the US lobbying groups - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47362528

jwrallie

I started using Linux when I was in high school. I got my first job years later because I knew my way around Linux much better than other candidates. My OS never tried to track my age to prevent me doing what I wanted. I used to live in one of these places where OSs should report user’s age and I am glad my kid will grow up in one that doesn’t (yet?).

t1234s

I guess going forward if you are under 18 and want to learn programming and not be harassed by the government you have to go back to having and offline only computer and stack of o'reilly books?

k33n

Totally inaccurate. The actual technical requirement is to add a self-reported age field to user creation flows, and that the value selected be made available to applications. But let's just pretend something totally different is happening. It's more exciting that way.

curt15

The overwhelming majority of programmers likely cut their teeth on computers as kids. Any attempt to restrict computer access to 18+ will only handicap American programmers in the job market.

duckerduck

When I was very young I installed OpenSUSE on my underpowered windows PC, it was really a hacker man experience that is engraved in my mind as a core memory. As a child I just thought it was cool to have a new and faster desktop, but as I've grown older I've stayed with Linux for its ideas and principles. Hopefully these laws can be overturned...

BobbyJo

This is all just unenforceable theater. Are they going to jail or fine open source developers if they create an OS that doesn't support the requirements? Are they going to do customs checks for OSs? Firewalls? These kinds of laws just seem like unworkable messes to fool the tech ignorant into thinking they care about kids. Application side I get, there is an entity there running the application, that can be fined or banned or what have you. But software itself? No.

gzread

I'm flagging this for the misleading and incendiary headline.

9991

Code is speech, so how on Earth isn't this a First Amendment violation?

stevetron

Perrhaps they can add ID-checking to the gnu compilers, too? lol

28304283409234

This was literally the example in the book "Weapons of Mass Instruction" by Gatto.

kevincloudsec

"no actual age verification" is doing a lot of work in these defenses