Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification • Hacker News Board

Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification

#561

Post by queenkjuul » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #355

tzs wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your objection to the California law? A summary for those not familiar with it: • Operating systems on devices whose primary user is a child must provide a way for the parent to provide age bracket information about the child. • They must also provide an API that apps and app stores can use to find out that age range if they need to have limits on what children can do with them. • They amended it to not apply…

Among many other things, privacy. If you know an age range that's more information about the user than you should have, and you can use it for marketing. And if you can ask for an age range, then in practice you know a birthday; just keep asking until the range changes and record when you saw it change. It's also the wrong way around: apps shouldn't ask for an age range, apps should provide one and the OS should do t…

> it's a foot in the door for demanding that websites and apps care about that age range.

This has been the case for literally decades. Social media sites aren't (technically) supposed to allow users under 13, and porn sites have obviously had this concern since forever.

This law does in fact make parental controls better by forcing the social media companies to change how they present content to minors.

I don't totally disagree that the impetus should be on the social media companies instead of the OS but i also genuinely don't see a problem with a voluntary adult/minor flag with a consistent API either

Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification

#562

Post by samspot » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

kej wrote: post #58

I feel like all of these laws are being designed backwards. Content providers, like MPAA films, should have to identify what sort of content they are providing. Then I can give my kids a device configured to allow some or all of that at my discretion. Requiring my kids' devices to advertise their age (or their age "bucket", as if that was a meaningful difference) to protect them is not doing me or my kids any favors.

Do you actually manage devices for kids? It's a massive pain fine tuning all the controls on Apple, and the only way to really be sure is to completely ban the web browser and the app store (and probably more things I have missed). Now do this for multiple kids.

Most parents can't be bothered, especially if they are non-technical and intimidated by settings. And so they give their kids unrestricted devices. I think I read the average first exposure to pornography is now age 7. I'm speaking from experience as many parents I've talked to have thrown up their hands because they can't keep their elementary aged kid from using the ipad all night, despite there being an extremely easy screen time fix for that very problem.

I am technical enough to understand how to do all this, but even then I encounter many bugs in the parental controls, for example one kid is able to use Safari despite my blocking, even though they are on an identical device to another child who is successfully blocked.

There are infinite content sources now, and it's not possible to manage them all 1-by-1.

All that being said, broadcasting device user age should be completely opt-in for those who want it, and not mandated for every customer.

Re: Illinois just passed a law that puts Linux on the hook for age verification

#563

Post by JoshTriplett » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

queenkjuul wrote: post #561

JoshTriplett wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among many other things, privacy. If you know an age range that's more information about the user than you should have, and you can use it for marketing. And if you can ask for an age range, then in practice you know a birthday; just keep asking until the range changes and record when you saw it change. It's also the wrong way around: apps shouldn't ask for an age range, apps should provide one and the OS should do t…

> it's a foot in the door for demanding that websites and apps care about that age range. This has been the case for literally decades. Social media sites aren't (technically) supposed to allow users under 13, and porn sites have obviously had this concern since forever. This law does in fact make parental controls better by forcing the social media companies to change how they present content to minors. I don't tota…

Social sites aren't supposed to knowingly allow users under 13, but they're not required to proactively exclude them either, nor should they be.

And addictive feeds are a problem for everyone, of any age.