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Ubuntu looks to add age verification
Ubuntu & Elementary OS Linux distributions are planning how to implement age verification functionality (for all user accounts on their OS), in order to comply with a new California law.
“We're currently looking into how to implement an API that will comply with the laws while also not being a privacy disaster,” says Aaron Rainbolt, Ubuntu Community Council Member.
The current proposal is adding a new D-Bus interface (“org.freedesktop.AgeVerification”), which would impact all Linux systems.
https://x.com/LundukeJournal/status/2028892521116635283
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2026-March/thread.html
(Personally, I would rather they just shut off service to California and send it back to the dark ages 
)
Thanked by 1barbarza
Comments
oh my fucking god, i fucking hate my stupid fucking governor newson about the stupid "age verification" law that doesn't do FUCKING JACK SHIT. it does NOTHING to "protect the kids" bullshit. Fucking hell, i have to live in hell for this, I'm going to install CacheOS or SteamOS 3 without the "age verification" bullshit.
Remember to call your elected officials and tell them. Make sure they know they lost your vote over this issue.
What the actual fuck
fuck that.
Just press the I’m over 18 button
I don't think people have actually read the law in question (especially not Lunduke who seems to basically only post ragebait stuff on Twitter), but the law just says the OS has to provide an "isOver18" API basically, and that the OS does not actually need to verify in any way how old the person actually is (you tick the "I'm of age" button when you create your account).
That's what you get with limousine democrats. Instead of actually addressing the problem (lack of parental supervision, invasive promotion method, and institutional supervision e.g school which barely function), they gave you stupid "solution".
They learned nothing from the chromebook experiment (which failed miserably). Kids is going to circumvent these measures.
This is not a political spectrum problem.
This is a failure in admitting parents are fucking terrible and need a shake up in how to actually parent.
Not to start a fire but Republicans have spoken very very clearly that they want to ban porn.
I dunno what's worse... Telling adults they can't jerk off to legal videos online or forcing adults to verify that they are an adult in order to "protect children."
Both don't solve any issues. Both will force black market and underground communities.
what birthday do you even enter for
www-data...? It's ludicrousI will admit TX, LA are among the source of anti-porn regulation... practically a nanny state regulation.
This is just another attempt to further expand surveillance state, implement moral policing without addressing the real issue
Obviously 1970-01-01
Yes. Politicians live in a different world.
I am a father. I have 3 children. Every day I am responsible for the well-being and the safety of my family, including safety online. I do not rely on corporations to supervise my kids for which I am responsible. I also do not rely on politicians to protect them with laws. This is my responsibility and I am fully aware of it ever since I accepted to have children for a chore of 18 years.
In my opinion politicians are utterly stupid if they think they can fix bad parenting. Since they live in Cuckoo land, they might as well take all the children from all the parents, and have the state raise them - at least this way they'll be sure there will be no bad parent out there and there will be no bad kid.
I dont get it, why you need age verification, look at 1990-2020 time range where we only need tick "Im over 18" to access site or whatever it is
Heck Im even watching more porn than education video yet im more educated and manner thab most children nowaday.
Beside you should protect your own data even u r child or not, upload your face/photo/whatever information to 3rd part that not in your country is fucked, literally incease your chance to expose your children to online predator.
Which could be solved by education and putting the onus on the parents.
Does a kid know how to ride a bike? No... The kid gets taught by the parents.
Does a teen know how to react to abuse? No... Because most don't understand that hotlines exist, there are legal processes and the parents aren't there to support them and help them. Because of this they're too afraid and the abuse is normalized.
I am not letting platforms off the hook. They should be doing way more to moderate their platform by taking direct action, even if you need to go through the legal route because it's so heinous.
I do not believe we have many political figures that actually understand the figures and how technology works.
Apparently the new york bill wants more than just enter birthday:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S8102/amendment/A
Can it be a simple package that can be removed with zero impact on functionality of the rest of the system?
How will this impact service providers with a POP in California? Going to add age verification to your old CentOS and Debian minimal templates?
This has nothing (or very little) to do with parents. Instead, the problem is that the government is trying to butt in and become the parent while the economy is so messed up that both parents must work full time. I'm from a generation where it was still possible to have a single breadwinner parent. Because my dad worked, my mom had the time to give me appropriate attention and raise me well. Because neither of my parents are Californian soycialists, my mom didn't feel the need to send me to daycare or stick me in front of a tablet while she went to "work" at an email job for the sake of sticking it to the patriarchy or whatever.
As for the platforms - I am willing to let them off the hook, at least on the moderation front. I am less willing to let the platforms off the hook on the other depraved shit they do — wasn't facebook caught running social experiments on users on how to drive them into depression or something?
What what what what what? What do hotlines have to do with anything? The way to deal with "abuse" is to hit the magic red box at the top right of your screen with a cross on it. Then go chop some wood, build some model trains, shoot some targets, etc.
The expertocracy has pathologized everything into 'abuse'. The solution is not to ban the CoD lobby, the solution is to stop raising a generation of snowflakes so that people can thrive in the CoD lobby. Oh and execute PDF Files. But considering half the government are, or work for, PDF Files, that won't happen.
But to bring this thread back onto the rails:
Ubuntu can go
fdiskitself. I've never liked it and always preferred not using it if given the chance. But fortunately there almost as many linux distros as there are javascript frameworks, so we'll be fine either way.This is exactly how it starts. Small changes. "You only have to ask". Then comes verification. Then comes centralizing of data.
I'm often on the more liberal non-conpiracy side of LET but I just find this easy to conclude, a country can't go from freedom to mass surveillance in one singular step.
ubuntu can suck my d-ram
That's why by making this, they send a message to:
use almalinux
I don't understand why does an OS need age verification? so what happens if you're running a vps located in Asia do you still need age verification?
Fun fact: california is the home of the porn industry. So when your kids are watching their cali porn on your desktop, its not their fault that their website didnt verify correctly. Nice trick hey?! The daddy rocks of porn had a consult or two with some lawyers.
So, pressing i am of age for local account would work right? Or they will force like lindows to use only online account. No wonder why Ubuntu always had so much hate as OS. From snapd to canonical now this. Fuck that.
You forgot systemd.
Ubuntu isn't worth the effort tbh, just use Debian (hopefully, they won't care about this bs law)
If true, FUCK THEM!
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntus-response-to-californias-digital-age-assurance-act-ab-1043/77948
My guess this has nothing to do with age verification but data mining is more important than the "protect the kids" propaganda.
What does this solve? Well the gubbermint knows who that user is.
What doesn't this solve? What it's marketed to solve.
What problem does this exacerbate? Further PI being leaked to malicious actors and no course of accountability to the companies that handle it.
SSN, state issued identification, passport and other personal information leaked? Tough shit. Buy a service to "protect" you :^)
Waiting for fingerprint login law, or you don't login.
For the terrorists, and the children™ (and for gay white men)
Verification? Has anyone actually read the law? It has no verification. https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1043/id/3273385
When you run
adduserit will ask you if it's an under-18 user. If you don't say yes, nothing different will happen.