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Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

agelesslinux.org

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Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#31

Post by terribleperson »

ectospheno wrote: post #22
terribleperson wrote: post #16

I honestly think the pushback against the California law is a mistake. We are being presented with an increasing number of services demanding identity verification, in the form of ID verification and/or video verification. California is offering an alternative to that, an alternative that only requires you provide your age, without verifying it. If the California law flops, the result isn't going to be no age verific…

I’ve fallen prey to too many people at the top of slippery slopes offering “gentle pushes”. The end result is always the same. If I’m to go down one it will be kicking and screaming not silent as a lamb.

The thing is, I think these are distinctly different approaches. Mandating that OSes collect a provided age and that websites/software collect and use that is very different from making sites liable for providing various types of content to minors. The first one is basically standardizing parental controls. The second one is already happening and results in ID verification approaches. I really, really do not want the second one, and it is already happening.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#32

Post by pocksuppet »

ectospheno wrote: post #22
terribleperson wrote: post #16

I honestly think the pushback against the California law is a mistake. We are being presented with an increasing number of services demanding identity verification, in the form of ID verification and/or video verification. California is offering an alternative to that, an alternative that only requires you provide your age, without verifying it. If the California law flops, the result isn't going to be no age verific…

I’ve fallen prey to too many people at the top of slippery slopes offering “gentle pushes”. The end result is always the same. If I’m to go down one it will be kicking and screaming not silent as a lamb.

[flagged]

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#33

Post by applfanboysbgon »

terribleperson wrote: post #16

I honestly think the pushback against the California law is a mistake. We are being presented with an increasing number of services demanding identity verification, in the form of ID verification and/or video verification. California is offering an alternative to that, an alternative that only requires you provide your age, without verifying it. If the California law flops, the result isn't going to be no age verific…

Jurisdictions are already lining up to slide down the slope as fast as they can. New York intends to mandate real verification and anti-circumvention measures at the OS level. There is no room for compromise: any jurisdiction attempting to compel what must be included in an OS is batshit insane and normalizing this is going to very quickly lead to JesusTracker.exe being mandated by Texas and CrocCam.exe by Florida.

Contrary to your belief that if we just give them an inch they won't take the full mile, I think it is very important to get people rallied against OS modification altogether. If you take a murky position like "a little bit of age verification, as a treat", and sell people on voting for that / not protesting it, all you're doing is priming the average person for accepting age verification no matter how invasive. Average Joe isn't going to understand the nuances of when age verification may or may not be tolerable, nor is Average Joe going to understand the nuances of when compelled software inclusion may or may not be tolerable. If we want to get millions aligned in the same interest, the message needs to be extremely clear and straightforward, communicating exactly how bad of an idea it is to let each and every jurisdiction compel their own form of surveillance into your OS.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#34

Post by pocksuppet »

zimpenfish wrote: post #20

I wish iOS 26.4 didn't bother because I'm stuck with an immovable "verify you're 18+" flag[0] in Settings even though it was well into the previous century when I was even near 18. [0] I have no credit card and it won't accept debit cards. It also won't use the fact that I've had an Apple account and spent 10s of thousands in my own name at their damn shops, online and real life, over the last 2 decades (and Apple/pa…

You should hope the California law passes, because it'll be illegal for them to verify you're 18+ instead of just asking you whether you're 18+.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#35

Post by terribleperson »

gfygfy wrote: post #30
terribleperson wrote: post #16

I honestly think the pushback against the California law is a mistake. We are being presented with an increasing number of services demanding identity verification, in the form of ID verification and/or video verification. California is offering an alternative to that, an alternative that only requires you provide your age, without verifying it. If the California law flops, the result isn't going to be no age verific…

Then we don't use those services and then they die. The world isn't Instagram. There have been decentralized channels for literally decades.

I don't really want the free internet to be relegated to onion sites and a hypothetical mesh internet. As things stand, every service is going to either tightly control content or adopt age verification because the alternative is being taken down by governments.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#36

Post by pocksuppet »

kykat wrote: post #6
bigyabai wrote: post #4

I feel like I need to read the prompt to understand what this website wants me to download here. What is it installing? What is it promoting?

I think it just wants to invite a lawsuit

it's basically the government said "no asbestos in food" and some contrarians set up a website selling asbestos food, except not really because they don't have a product.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#37

Post by exabrial »

terribleperson wrote: post #16

I honestly think the pushback against the California law is a mistake. We are being presented with an increasing number of services demanding identity verification, in the form of ID verification and/or video verification. California is offering an alternative to that, an alternative that only requires you provide your age, without verifying it. If the California law flops, the result isn't going to be no age verific…

Hell no. Burn it to the ground instead and make an embarrassment out of the illiterate politicians. Nobody voted for this. Nobody wants it.

Tarring and feathering was once acceptable. Shame it's out of style.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#38

Post by kykat »

pocksuppet wrote: post #28
kykat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The API seems like a funny joke anyway, `sudo setage 12987123`, done.

It's designed for parents to enact parental controls on their children. If you're root, you're the parent. Obviously root can turn off parental controls.

I wouldn't be so sure, I think the ultimate goal is to link your network activity to your government id, just like the way it's done in China. So the only root left is the government basically.

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#39

Post by alephnerd »

nextos wrote: post #14

Something remarkable and unsettling is how the age verification debate has popped up almost simultaneously in the US, UK, and EU. With the same logical fallacies. Pretty telling about how transnational lobbies and their interests work. Controlling what children do online is a solved problem: Parenting and parental control applications.

> how the age verification debate has popped up almost simultaneously in the US, UK, and EU

It's because of a mix of Barroness Kidron's lobbying [0] and companies trying to meet legislators halfway [1] due to latent legislative anger due to disinformation incidents that arose during the 2016 election, January 6th, January 8th in Brazil, the New Caledonia unrest, and a couple others.

Civil and digital libertarianism is not a mainstream view outside of a subset of techies.

Sadly, building and deploy a truly private and OSS authentication service was not on the radar in the early 2010s - that would have staved off the current iteration.

[0] - https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/14/british-baroness-on...

[1] - https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/11/exclusive...

Re: Ageless Linux – Software for humans of indeterminate age

#40

Post by fsckboy »

pocksuppet wrote: post #27
simmerup wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Why should that be our problem when we can just tell parents to parent?

because parents get to vote same as you, and it looks like they are winning. there are many problems in the libertarian utopia that could be dumped on individuals ("if you don't like it, don't leave your house") but equally unfortunately many prefer a socialist utopia with lots of social and financial controls
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