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A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

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Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#231

Post by idle_zealot »

hilsdev wrote: post #205
idle_zealot wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm reading of this law is that it requires OS developers to require users select their age (really their age bracket) when making a user account, and an interface for applications/websites to read that user-provided field. I.e. not age verification, but just a standard way to identify if a user is on a child account. If that understanding is correct, how is this bad at all ? It's a way to put to rest people's c…

Why should it be law? I am a developer in California, and a long time Linux nerd. If I were to release a hobby on my GitHub for fun, without age verification, am I now subject to fines? Imprisonment? Why should their be a legal requirement?

As with any law like this, it should apply to systems made for normal end-users with over some minimum number of users. If your hobby Linux distro picks up a million home users then yeah, you're responsible for making it suitable for purpose for as long as you're distributing it. It's the same with accessibility requirements, safety requirements, labor laws, etc.

If California starts knocking on the door of random distros and hobby OSes designed for power users or servers with 2000 average monthly downloads then I'll go to bat defending them.

Though to re-iterate, I'm pretty sure the requirements here are for asking a user to set an age, not to do age verification, so if you did want to comply it would mean adding a Date field to your setup flow and then wiring that up to applications that ask for it.

Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#232

Post by WaitWaitWha »

fangpenlin wrote: post #67

There's an obvious theme with lawmakers in California—they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about, add them to their achievement page, cheer for themselves, and declare, "There! I've made the world a better place." There are just too many examples. For instance: - Microstamping requirements for guns—printing a unique barcode on every bullet casing (Glock gen3 cannot be retired, thus, the auto-mode swi…

i did not even think of that! As the current law reads, will smart devices with OSes require age verification? Many IoTs are just tiny Linux versions running on a small processor. This makes all smart GE washing machines, dryers and refrigerators illegal in California.

come to think of it, maybe there is something good about this law. :D

Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#233

Post by wredcoll »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #185
fangpenlin wrote: post #67

There's an obvious theme with lawmakers in California—they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about, add them to their achievement page, cheer for themselves, and declare, "There! I've made the world a better place." There are just too many examples. For instance: - Microstamping requirements for guns—printing a unique barcode on every bullet casing (Glock gen3 cannot be retired, thus, the auto-mode swi…

> they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about While you are correct with this statement in this context, I would say it applies to most things in government in general. The vast majority of lawmakers have zero experience solving any real world problems and are content spending everyone else's money to play pretend at doing so. The reality is, most government "solutions" cause more problems than they s…

> The reality is, most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve

The "reality" is that propaganda heavily encourages you to ignore the government successes and only focus on the failures. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine who benefits from that.

Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#234

Post by michaelteter »

fangpenlin wrote: post #67

There's an obvious theme with lawmakers in California—they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about, add them to their achievement page, cheer for themselves, and declare, "There! I've made the world a better place." There are just too many examples. For instance: - Microstamping requirements for guns—printing a unique barcode on every bullet casing (Glock gen3 cannot be retired, thus, the auto-mode swi…

You can single out California, but I assure you there are asinine laws on the books in most states.

What it takes to become a “successful” politician is typically not what it takes to define good policy.

Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#235

Post by noosphr »

kogasa240p wrote: post #226
hosh wrote: post #210

What about: - servers living in datacenters - realtime operating systems in embedded devices - the Intel Management Engine - the OS on every smart chip in credit cards and debit cards - wireless cameras, roombas, smart TVs, smart fridges - cars. Those automotive systems have OSes too right? - all those IoT devices, including California’s traffic cameras What age signals should those devices send out? Is there an excl…

They will be "exempt" probably.

You assume far too much competence.

Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#236

Post by idle_zealot »

bawolff wrote: post #195
idle_zealot wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm reading of this law is that it requires OS developers to require users select their age (really their age bracket) when making a user account, and an interface for applications/websites to read that user-provided field. I.e. not age verification, but just a standard way to identify if a user is on a child account. If that understanding is correct, how is this bad at all ? It's a way to put to rest people's c…

All the better to do targeted advertisments and underdeveloped minds!

This is exactly the sort of infrastructure that would make it super easy to pass a law banning tracking and advertising to minors. Once every platform can trivially detect when they should turn off the ads there's no reasonable counter-argument about privacy or feasibility.

Re: A new California law says all operating systems need to have age verification

#238

Post by wredcoll »

ericb wrote: post #224
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about While you are correct with this statement in this context, I would say it applies to most things in government in general. The vast majority of lawmakers have zero experience solving any real world problems and are content spending everyone else's money to play pretend at doing so. The reality is, most government "solutions" cause more problems than they s…

I see Massachusetts as sort of the non-insane liberal counterpoint to California. Things work here and nobody seems to be passing the "oops my unintended side effects and clueless regulations messed things up horribly." Or, if they do, it is at something like 1/10th the level. We didn't start warning label spam everywhere. We don't have weird propositions that are causing run-away housing prices. There aren't bar cod…

> We don't have weird propositions that causing run-away housing prices.

Most of those are a reaction rather than the cause. People want to move to california, it creates a different set of problems for california vs Massachusetts

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