TLDW:
Brazil is requiring OS level age verification by march 17th, 2026.
New York about to vote on a law that would “require all manufacturers of internet-enabled devices, operating systems, or application stores to conduct commercially reason-able and technically feasible age assurance for users at the point of device activation.”
In order to “incentivize” age verification, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that they will ignore COPPA violations for software performing age verification.
Linux is just a kernel.
Redhat with fedora and steam with the arch based steam os will be the ones that have to implement it.
Adding that nonsense to enterprise Linux distros will be hilarious to watch.
And Steam can just sell blank hardware and let you install some distro you find on the Internet. Streetlight did that with one of their albums.
And what happens when someone forks fedora and removes it for their own machine. Who’s the manufacturer then?
I am pretty sure anyone will still be able to install a distro/fork from a free country, but steam is unlikely to go this route because convenience is part of the package. They may not even care to resist because they already ask your age for the steam store.
I am more curious what this will do for non standard devices with multiple users. Even kitchen equipment may run a derivative of linux these days and they don’t come with keyboard access.
Sorry. You gotta go to jail now. Your toddler grabbed a juicy juice box from your smart refridgerator without being 18+.
I hadn’t even thought of those. Are Samsung fridges going to verify my age?
You will have to show ID to prove you are of age to drink if there is alcohol in it if you want to open it. No ID, no fridge access.
You’re probably writing that on a device that has a secure boot chain. So far it was there without strict enforcement, but once the manufacturers decide you only get your shit signed if you implement $ARBITRARY_ORWELLIAN_GOV_RULE, you’re pretty much fucked.
You mean I can voluntarily not participate in society?
BRB installing Linux everywhere.