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Colorado proposing Bill to move age verification to Operating System rather than web site
(www.biometricupdate.com)
Year of the Linux desktop inbound.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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As a parent, I wish someone would develop a cross platform, open source, parental control tool that preserves privacy while allowing for strong controls that are simple to use. The best I could come up with is a separate instance of Pihole that any device my kids use is linked to. It would be nice if there was a software option or something implemented in hardware that allowed parents to register the device with the user's age (no identifying info). Laws could then be passed forcing certain websites and apps to reject any users under a certain age. The restrictions could automatically lift when the user reaches a predetermined age. I'm not an expert so there are probably aspects of this I haven't thought through but it seems better than what has been implemented so far.
I'm not in IT and only have tangential knowledge, but I would think something like corporate internet control would work for this. I know my company has blanket access restrictions with the ability to modify them on an individual basis. But I haven't the slightest idea how to implement that. I think all of my company device data goes through a tunnel.
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(4 replies)
Have you checked your modem/Wi-Fi router?
Sounds Dumb, I know, but many have them baked in.
It may not be perfect, but it covers all devices unless you can login.
I did. My router runs a version of OpenWRT and while I can blacklist certain domains, I can’t add lists of domains. They have to be added one by one. The pi-hole solution is much easier. I can add an entire list for social media. I can add a list that forces search engines to use safe search.
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(3 replies)
Apple already has iCloud age settings
You know what ? If this law is only imposed on commercial operating systems, and I can make my free OS lie and say I'm 100+ ; then maybe this could work.
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(1 replies)
I've been a longtime mobile and web developer, have a teenage kid with a phone, and am a big privacy advocate (card-carrying member of ACLU and EFF). As a parent, I don't want my kid exposed to cyber-bullying, toxic social media, or algorithmic bullshit.
And I will tell you this: the operating system is 100% where you want to do age verification.
I don't want individual social media sites, dodgy third-party orgs, or government agencies scanning our faces or IDs. Under a family sharing plan, the OS already knows how old the kid is. Any site wanting to gate access can privately ask the OS if age > X without spilling their PII. Same concept as OAuth. An opaque, encrypted token indicating GO or NO-GO.
Raging that they shouldn't do any of this is just idiotic. Unfettered access got us CSAM, kids getting radicalized, or bullied to the point of self-harm. Fuck that.
From a technical point of view, having OS-level verification is the least worst, and in my technical opinion, the best option.
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(7 replies)