Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

pcgamer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 768 posts

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

#481

Post by elfly »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #250
alistairSH wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve Zero basis in fact. We’re in the wealthiest nation on the planet. Most of us live better than any previous generation. To claim all that success is completely in spite of government is ridiculous.

Are you under the impression that the government created all that wealth?

Have you ever looked at a dollar bill in your life.

Who do you think printed it. Who signed the bill?

The US can just print money and receive goods in exchange of literal paper. Or just put an extra zero in a bank account and receive goods in exchange.

And if a certain yahoo decides they want in the money printing scheme...who do you think is going to send the goons with guns to prevent the government monopoly in creating literal wealth.

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

#482

Post by dataflow »

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…

> Now, you need to verify your age... on your microwave?

What part of the bill makes you think this would apply to a microwave? https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm...

And what part makes you think you need to verify your age, as opposed to just specifying it? Nobody is requiring any verification. The only requirement is on there being an interface for you to input whatever age you want to input.

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

#483

Post by cvhc »

I know this sounds absurd. But let me try not to be cynical and explain how we got here, according to what I understand:

First, let's admit the push for age verification laws isn't a partisan or ideological thing. It's a global trend. This California law has bipartisan sponsorship and only major org opponent is the evil G [1]. While age verification is unpopular in tech community, I imagine a lot of average adult voters agree that limiting children's access to wilder parts of the Internet is a good thing.

On this premise, the discussion is then who should be responsible for age verification. The traditional model is to require app developers / website owners to gatekeep -- like the Texas and Ohio laws that require PornHub to verify users' IDs. But such model put too much burden on small developers, and it's a privacy nightmare to have to share your PII with random apps.

This is why we see this new model. States start to believe it seems more viable to dump the responsibility on big tech / platforms. A newer Texas law is adopt this model (on top the traditional model) to require app stores to verify user age (but was recently blocked by court) [2]. And this California law pretty much also takes this model -- the OS (thinking as iOS / Android / Windows with app store) shall obtain the user age and provide "a signal regarding the users age bracket to applications available in a covered application store".

While many people here are concerning open-source OSes, and the language do cover all OSes -- my intuition is no lawmaker had ever think about them and they were not the target.

[1] https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab... [2] https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/big-tech-won-in-tex...

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

#484

Post by cvhc »

ipnon wrote: post #301
MangoCoffee wrote: post #296

It's funny that more and more Chinese style laws are being passed in the West. What's next? Chinese style social credit? You’ll need 800 points to run a sudo command? Free society? Mass surveillance. The West is becoming more of a nanny state like China every year.

California is becoming more like a nanny state. I don’t think a law like this would pass in North Dakota or Texas in a thousand years.

No. Age verification law is not a partisan or ideological thing. It's a global trend. This law is sponsored by both parties: https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab... , and Texas has a newer law (App Store Accountability Act) that requires app stores to verify user ages and obtain parental consent for minors.

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

#485

Post by api »

hliyan wrote: post #471
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…

Continually surprised by politicians wanting an OS to do what a parent should be doing. Why not just mandate that all devices with access control capabilities implement parental controls, and then mandate that all adults enable controls before handing a device to a minor? For devices that are incapable of user access control, the same rules as a knife, chainsaw or gun apply.

Only wealthy parents (upper middle class or better) have the time or energy to do anything other than work, put food on the table, and do basic child care.

Most parents lack the technical expertise to police digital devices.

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

#486

Post by api »

SllX wrote: post #124
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…

The incentives are all wrong. You can serve up to 6 two-year terms in the Assembly or up to 3 four-year terms in the Senate, but regardless of which combination you do, nobody in the California legislature can serve more than 12 years combined across both Houses of the legislature. So we don’t have professional legislatures with long-term electability incentives or leadership goals, we have a resumé-building exercise…

Long term tenure won't help. Look at the Federal government. Eventually you end up with a hospice center as your legislature.

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

#487

Post by averysmallbird »

georgefrowny wrote: post #463
jatari wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The big three will love this. They'll implement the feature, then they get to dob in Linux and friends and get them buried in regulatory lawsuits. All three already have identity linked accounts. Windows practically shoves it down your throat on install, for example. They'll love the excuse to finally disallow web-free accounts. Windows servers are so back baby!

It’s only enforced by the CA Attorney General, and I’d be surprised to see a threat, let alone a lawsuit, against Linux on this. Not to say this is ideal.

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

#489

Post by angry_octet »

It's also completely pointless because users routinely use shared accounts. It was thus on the WinXP machine at home, and still is today on iPads and android tablets. Yes, Apple has made it dysfunctional so that rich people will get one iPad per person, but many children use games and social media apps via their parents accounts. Who is going to set up an AppleID for their 8 year old? (Well I did, but normal people?)

The people who wrote this law work for Microsoft and think people have individual laptops and phones with a cellular plan. They care nothing for user privacy, in fact they want persistent digital identifies for advertising.

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

#490

Post by [deleted] »

hliyan wrote: post #471
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…

Continually surprised by politicians wanting an OS to do what a parent should be doing. Why not just mandate that all devices with access control capabilities implement parental controls, and then mandate that all adults enable controls before handing a device to a minor? For devices that are incapable of user access control, the same rules as a knife, chainsaw or gun apply.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN