this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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For those interested on the question of age verification and GNU/Linux: be aware that Systemd v261-rc1 was recently released. It now implements an optional birth date field in the JSON user database (see second item under "Other changes").

The implementation of this field was prompted by age-verification or -attestation laws.

(Age-verification status of Open Source Operating Systems.)

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[–] TheMadBeagle@lemmy.ml 18 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Did you ignore the comment in the github where it, and I quote "Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc.". Yes it is optional NOW, but this is in preparation of laws that make it legally Mandatory. Don't down play this.

[–] excel@lemming.megumin.org 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Miss me with this "slippery slope" BS.
Having a standardized place to store the DOB is a good thing and it should have been there even before these laws.
And if some users want to comply with those laws, then they should have a way to do it.
If anybody actually tries to make this a hard requirement (which isn't going to happen), then you can bitch about it at that time.

[–] Mordikan@kbin.earth 1 points 1 hour ago

California's AB-1043 already passed, so we get to bitch about it now. Thanks for your support.

[–] korbel@lemmy.ml 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

What you quote is the justification why a new field should be added. You can't just say e.g. a Wardrobe number should be added without justifying it, otherwise it won't be accepted. You can say a Wardrobe number should be added because recent scientific developments suggest that some wardrobes open up new worlds, so it became necessary to extend the address field.

This doesn't mean systemd would enforce anything or go into the politics of certain jurisdictions. It just enables distros to use this field, and it's up to the distros what they want to do with it.

[–] Bogus007@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

You don’t have such fields in openrc, runit or S6.

[–] OccasionallyFeralya@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

Those options don’t do the same things as SystemD though