I've always input my age as 1900-01-01 and I can't change that now because that'll show an inconsistency and we can't have that now can we.
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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uhhh. So would I need to get everyone who uses the household pc to verify age? Whats stopping a child from using the family pc that was age verified by an adult?
Believe it or not, straight to jail
Clearly the point is not tl verify the age. They want your data.
How will this affect embedded os like freertos or vxworks? There are lightbulbs that have operating systems these days, am I going to have to show ID to turn on my light?
The law does not require photo ID uploadsor facial recognition, with users instead simply self-reporting their age, setting AB 1043 apart from similar laws passed in Texas and Utah that require "commercially reasonable" verification methods, such as government-issued ID checks.
Seems toothless. Good.
Sounds like they're lampooning the other laws tbh
Simple solution. From now on Linux distros should ship with a big message "NOT FOR USE IN CALIFORNIA".
You want to force age verification? No server in all of California will run. Period.
Ah, the Glock solution.
Enforcement against Linux distributions, however, is likely to be problematic. Distros like Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, and Gentoo have no centralized account infrastructure, with users downloading ISOs from mirrors worldwide, and can modify source code freely. These small distros lack legal teams or resources to implement the required API, so a more realistic outcome for non-compliant distros is a disclaimer that the software is not intended for use in California.
Linux from Scratch is a refuge. It would be greatly improved with a package manager.
When I did it I added rpm and apt (and alien). It was a clusterfuck. Good times.
Technically, Linux is not an operating system, just a kernel, so I'm not sure how this would be implemented.
See, here's the big open secret. All these politicians, who make all these rules? They don't have a clue what they're talking about. They think a kernel is something that gets stuck in your teeth whrn you eat corn.
That was a 5'19 kernel operating in my mouth, I swear.
Most of them are old enough to remember when politics was invented.
How old is my tomcat user? How about my various docker containers, are those separate OSes?
What if no internet? How set up?
Wow California leading the way to fascism, who woulda thunk?
Colorado Dems pushing a similar law rn.
Fucking idiots.
Because it's not that crazy or authoritarian and is basically what most websites already do to "verify" you age (which is to say nothing but asking you your age). But the onus is now being put on OS makers, with an additional clause to build an API for other developers to access so they also can "know" a user's age.
The law does not require photo ID uploads or facial recognition, with users instead simply self-reporting their age
The photo ID requirements are what will come next.
Maybe. But it will be funny for a little bit when the data starts showing the average age of a Californian is over 200 years.
It always ALWAYS comes step by step!
First they will introduce age "non-real-check", then they will enforce the check: you have accepted the principle, so what's the big deal if we actually check it?
It’s been that way for a very long time.