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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

#391

Post by decidu0us9034 »

dathinab wrote: post #46

> [..] requires an account holder to _indicate_ [..] i.e. this doesn't require age verification at all just a user profile age property > [..] interface that identifies, at a minimum, which of the following _categories_ pertains to the user [..] so you have to give apps and similar a 13+,16+,18+,21+ hint (for US) if combined with parent controls and reasonably implemented this can archive pretty much anything you nee…

It's not privacy-respecting at all to create some side channel between your browser and OS to transmit some information about a "user profile." If this were about browser vendors it might make sense but they're targeting operating systems (presumably for the malicious vendor lock-in type of reasons you cite? idk, it's strange). I would like someone to explain how this would even be implemented securely. It's certainly non-trivial.

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

#392

Post by jkrejcha »

whynotmaybe wrote: post #139
jrmg wrote: post #12

The actual bill: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm... Bill text (it’s longer, but the rest is mostly definitions of the terms used here): 1798.501. (a) An operating system provider shall do all of the following: (1) Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providin…

How does that apply to windows server with active directory for a school ? Does that mean that the admin will have to manage dob of every student when creating accounts ? > A developer shall not willfully disregard internal clear and convincing information otherwise available to the developer that indicates that a user’s age is different than the age bracket data indicated by a signal provided by an operating system…

> Does that mean that the admin will have to manage dob of every student when creating accounts ?

That already happens to some extent although the mechanism by which this happens might depend on the school district, etc. The `dateOfBirth` LDAP attribute is probably the most obvious method (which admittedly should probably not be used due to the ease in accessing this info in the default configuration) but there are others.

In secondary school when my account was set up we were told that our initial password (that we had to change on first logon) was our DOB

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

#394

Post by Bender »

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…

Modern technology is simply not compatible with clueless politicians

He may be our next president and this becomes an executive order.

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

#396

Post by dboreham »

WalterBright wrote: post #382
hash872 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proto-Internet. GPS. Nuclear energy. MRIs. Fracking. The Human Genome Project. Fiber optics. Optical data storage. Jet engines. Heck, the entire space industry. Lithium ion batteries. Radar. Night vision technology. Modern lower limb prosthetics. Just off the top of my head

Jet engines - Frank Whipple (England) and Franz Ohain (Germany) invented them. In both cases the governments were not interested in them until flying jet aircraft were demonstrated. Lockheed was ordered by the government to abandon their jet engine project and focus on piston engines instead (which resulted in the US having to get started on jet aircraft by buying British machines). Human genome - J. Venter was the f…

Whittle (Whipple is a painter) "invented" the jet engine while serving in the RAF, so technically not privately funded at the point of invention. There was private funding used later to create prototype engines.

Quite a stretch to say the Atomic Bomb was privately funded!!!

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

#397

Post by saati »

RobotToaster wrote: post #311
shitlord wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Policies enacted elsewhere usually don't have the Brussels Effect.

What about in Brussels?

I assume you mean EU directives and not Belgian law, and the thing is it's incredibly hard to pass an EU directive, it needs to originate in the Commission, then pass qualified majority in the Council then pass a vote in the Parliament. Nothing without a broad consensus can get anywhere near.

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

#399

Post by trhway »

jatari wrote: post #313
bmitch3020 wrote: post #290

Reaction 1: how would this even work with embedded systems that have no UI to input this data? Reaction 2: it's open source, make the lawmakers do submit the changes. Reaction 3: how would this ever be enforced? Would they outlaw downloading distributions, or even older versions of distributions? When there's no exchange of money, a law like this is seems like it would be suppression of free speech. Reaction 4: Someo…

It would just be unenforced for all platforms except windows, apple and android. I doubt the california legislature knows what a Linux even is.

>I doubt the california legislature knows what a Linux even is.

they would never need to know it once they learn what SecureBoot is. Any device with 1+ Gflop must have SecureBoot, and goodbye general computing.

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

#400

Post by pennomi »

rib3ye wrote: post #325
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…

It's not a coincidence the equally clueless citizens are asking for these laws. Like in business, sometimes it's better to do "some thing" when you're not smart enough to do the right thing. Maybe you get there, maybe you don't, but inaction is not looked upon kindly.

What citizens are asking for age verification? I have met exactly ZERO people who want this. It’s only the authorities who want it.
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