A simple solution could be to ask on account creation if the user of that account is a resident of California (Colorado) or any state that requires age attestation.
Then only those users should enter their age, for all the others there could be simply a default value of 99 or 999 years or no age assessment at all.
I think in the 1990s there was a similar situation with France, where encryption software was illegal and on installation I think Debian asked if you were located in France. not sure how other distributions handled that if at all.
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In the United States, we have IDme to access government websites. I have no idea if they have an API that can be used, but hey, I don’t see the problem either. If what they need is for the operating system you use, which only you access (I’m talking about Linux), to tell a browser whether you’re of legal age or not, I don’t see any problem at all. Furthermore, iOS now has this option, and basically, iOS doesn’t provide an exact age; it simply provides an age range that determines whether you’re of legal age.
Another one. Have you read this? Any brazilian here to tell us anything about? 
"Remember that California law which will require all Operating Systems to implement age verification by Jan 1, 2027?
Well, Brazil has a similar law. And it takes effect on March 17th… two weeks from now.
Brazilian Law No. 15,211 (Passed September 17, 2025) will require age verification for all Operating Systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) on March 17th, 2026.
The penalty, per failure to comply, is R$50 million (roughly $9.5 Million USD) per infraction".
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Unfortunately there is no link to the Law content. Based onwhat the blogger wrote it appears to target online services, although there is some wiggle room for applications, but then again probably in the context of on line services.
Mostly it requires that parental supervisory controls be made available, not a bad thing, as it provides for parental agency, and privacy controls,which, as far as i can tell is not a requirement of the US state laws.
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Ubuntu and ElementryOS are starting to implement this law and hope to finish it before January 2027. The discussion has kicked off on the Ubuntu Developer Mailing-List: On the unfortunate need for an "age verification" API for legal compliance reasons in some U.S. states
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As I see it, and as the law seems to be, it’s easy to comply with. Ask for the date of birth when creating an account, and store the answer in a file within a directory in home/.config, done. If you run a “sudo” command, the date of birth should be read from that file in the home directory of the user invoking “sudo”. But yes, I don’t like this law and it sets a dangerous precedent. Today it’s the age or date of birth in plain text, tomorrow it will be an encrypted image of the ID shared with 1000 external agencies, and if not, time will tell.
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But I think most people, and certainly me, don’t want to create an account to use their device…
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It isnt possible to install Manjaro without creating a user account. At least not easily if at all. This is quite different than Windows or Mac where doing so starts the OS sending info to a corporation. Its basic computer control and maintenance related with linux. Keeping your files private and allowing you to update the system with your password etc.
Braxman has a video up discussing the issue. He makes the interesting point that age attestation can be turned around and used for grooming. So exactly the opposite of what the law pretends to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqt5czOckdw
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Well, the Brazilian law will come in effect on 17th of March 2026. More info about this here: Vella Pugliese Buosi Guidoni - Brazil enacts new law to protect children and adolescents in digital environments. This might kick our friends out of business: https://www.biglinux.com.br/
Well i do not know any current os that works without user name creation. Even the 2 big smartphone os-es, they just hide it from you.
But unlike windows, most linux based desktop systems make it local and offline and not connected to any cloud.
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I think that’s the kind of Linux we still want.
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Well, discord might be a test balloon for this case:
Anyway, the EU will launch the digital identity wallet for lot of services and will make it mandatory as it gets rolled out: EU Digital Identity Wallet Home - EU Digital Identity Wallet -
The way you phrase your posts on this subject, makes it sound, to me, like you just accept this sort of thing, and have no interest in finding ways to fight it… like getting involved in, for example, EFF lawsuits to fight it.
I hope I am miss reading the context.
Our forum got noted in a YT video:
Add New York State to the list.
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S8102/amendment/A
Reading this one, it reads even more vague and stupid than the others.
Requires manufacturers of internet-enabled devices to conduct age assurance to determine a user’s age category and provide all websites, online services, online applications and mobile applications on such user’s internet-enabled device and/or application store manufactured by the covered manufacturer with a digital signal that such user is a covered minor as well as the age category of such covered minor via a real-time application programming interface (API).
If I buy a computer with No OS, in what way can the Manufacturer comply with this law?
If I build a computer from scratch, who is the manufacturer?
While these laws are clearly aimed at the corporate Operating System suppliers. It still affects the Open Source community.
Another thing these laws do is place incredible amounts of power into the hands of Big corporate entities.
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Thats a good question. I just built a computer from components and installed Manjaro. Am I the manufacturer because I assembled it, is one of the makers of a component the manufacturer, or is the OS that is a collection of packages from all over the manufacturer?
I am not philm, but as one of the creators of an OS he has to be ready to comply with laws. It may take years to wind its way through the courts. Open source projects that are often run on shoestring budgets cant survive constant fines while the court system figures it out.
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I am aware of this, and I am not placing blame of Manajro, or Arch. These laws will have to be complied with, or go out of business (or existence).
No I was was merely querying @philm 's use of passive voice, and yes there are possibly good reasons why passive voice is employed. I assume he/they are consulting legal council, and not merely passively complying.
So the original law text is here L15211, its in portuguese.
I’m no lawyer, but I studied a little bit of law and I’ve tried to find as much information that I could find from actual lawyers, and the consensus seems to be that it will affect online services only.
But the law also says:
Article 9°
Suppliers of information technology products or services that make available content, products, or services whose offering or access is improper, inappropriate, or prohibited for individuals under 18 (eighteen) years of age must adopt effective measures to prevent access by children and adolescents within the scope of their services and products.
and that’s pretty vague, but I think that if there is a chance of this coming to operating systems, unless you have a distro that is straight up based on porn or gore this won’t affect it. If there is any content in the repositories that might have something deemed “inappropriate” the developer of the program might take the blame, not the distro.
But that is counting on the competency of our political class witch… has a chance to save us since most of them barely know that linux exists, let alone how it works. And we have a somewhat of relevant of a Free Software movement even inside some government areas, used to be stronger but is not completely gone, so we might have a chance to fight if things get ugly.
And just to clarify, I’ve seen some places saying that the fees for not complying are straight up 50 million american dollars and that is not true.
Fist the fees are in Brazilian currency, not American dolars
Second when any Brazilian law, that I’ve seen including this one, sets a fee for any company, they set a minimum and a maximum based on the company profits. In the case of this particular law, the bare minimum is 10 reais, to 1000 reais per registered user and it cannot surpass a maximum of 50 million reais or 10% of the company’s revenue made in Brazil’s market specifically. So if there is a company that 10% of their revenue is, lets say 100 million reais in Brazil, they will only pay 50 million, not more.
Edit: Just to emphasize I’m not a lawyer, this is not a legal advice
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