this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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TLDW:

Brazil is requiring OS level age verification by march 17th, 2026.

New York about to vote on a law that would "require all manufacturers of internet-enabled devices, operating systems, or application stores to conduct commercially reason-able and technically feasible age assurance for users at the point of device activation."

In order to “incentivize” age verification, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that they will ignore COPPA violations for software performing age verification.

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[–] Mohamad20ZX@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

Thanks for sharing these news with us yeah I’m not going back to Ubuntu after this (not it’s a great OS to begin with) but before that we had to deal with snaps bogging up the entire system with updates galore anyway hopefully we can learn this lesson about not using mainstream software to control our data

Make sure to be clear that fake IDs are things you can make and use to bypass this. If using fake names on the internet isn't unethical to you all why are Fake IDs as a subject avoided like the plague?

[–] Canconda@lemmy.ca 420 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

In order to “incentivize” age verification, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that they will ignore COPPA violations for software performing age verification.

COPPA prevents companies from collecting data on minors without parental consent.

Sounds like the Epstein Class is still in charge of the FTC.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 124 points 1 week ago

Feels weird upvoting this comment. I have to remind myself. It's not you I'm mad at. You're not the one doing this. You're just the messanger.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 57 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The irony knows no bounds, the one half decent reason age verification could exists for is so these companies have no more excuses to ignore coppa because now they can just pretend everyone is a consenting adult.

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[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago

Yeah, this does not sound like it's going to make our children any safer.

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[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 197 points 1 week ago (6 children)

They are taking the power of personal computing away from us...

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 122 points 1 week ago

Pretty much. They‘re essentially outlawing privacy so there will be no point in resisting. This is worse than Orwellian.

[–] Tim_Bisley@piefed.social 81 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I feel like there is a line coming with hardware and software and that will be the last of it's type as the move towards subscription based services is forced onto everyone. Its a shame people won't vote with their wallets. It just means I'll have my basement crammed with old tech and I'll go full old man mode and stop keeping up with technological progress.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

Thats my plan.

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[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 127 points 1 week ago (5 children)

It's gonna be fun when people are sitting around a campfire talking about how bad tech ceos, wall street backed corporations, enshittification, corrupt politicians and fascism all led to the extinction of the tech golden age... as they prepare their spears to fight the next wave of machines coming to harvest them.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 93 points 1 week ago (1 children)

13 days 😂 Tell me you don't know how software development works or how operating systems are developed without telling me.

[–] albbi@piefed.ca 57 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Unless someone already has age verification ready to go and wanted to be a monopoly for a while.

[–] shark@lemmy.org 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is my theory about California and age verification. As soon as alternative mobile operating system are getting better there’s suddenly a law about operating systems requiring age verification? Maybe I’m just paranoid.

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[–] hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 87 points 1 week ago (1 children)

can we stop linking to lunduke (he’s a transphobe chud)

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[–] Mikina@programming.dev 79 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

So this is the thing I'll eventually end up in jail for bypassing. I coul've sworn it would be drugs.

Oh well.

[–] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, the fact that I can wave to a cop walking out of a store where I just bought some pot, but might face massive fines for not doing age verification for a pong game I wrote is insane. I mean, I still want to be able to smoke my pot legally, but I also don't want to have to care about who plays pong.

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[–] TriplePlaid@wetshav.ing 74 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Pretty soon you'll be hearing folks say things like "why are you worried if you don't have anything to hide" as if personal privacy has no value whatsoever. It's a slippery slope!!!

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's not a slippery slope, it's a drop into a pit fall.

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[–] 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 65 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Accountless linux distros incoming

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 80 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Can’t wait for distros to post a disclaimer that this software is strictly intended only for use on the moon.

[–] morto@piefed.social 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Better yet. Say that the software isn't intended for any use at all and they don't allow you to download it, but then leave an open directory with the images

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago

"By downloading this software, you agree you are a very naughty boy or girl."

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[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 54 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There must be some kind of higher-managed plan on this man. Everything seems to be so sudden and coordinated it just cant be a coincidence. I am NOT giving my ID to use my computer

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A conspiracy of global elites? Pffft.

That's crazytalk.

It's not like Peter Thiel ,one time president and current member of the BILDERBERG steering committee , and a bunch of other dudes who worked at PayPal are solely responsible for the trajectory of technology...

Or like some forum on economics somewhere in the world would coordinate economics, and make some crazy plan with a super unbelievably literal name like agenda 2030 with the dude at the head saying "you'll own nothing and you will be happy"

I mean... Crazy. Right.

The rich should have already been filleted and cooked.

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[–] texture@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago (3 children)

theres no reason to post lunduke. surely we can get our info from literally any other source

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Linus Torvalds is the closest thing Linux has to a manufacturer

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 54 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Linux is just a kernel.

Redhat with fedora and steam with the arch based steam os will be the ones that have to implement it.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 42 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Adding that nonsense to enterprise Linux distros will be hilarious to watch.

And Steam can just sell blank hardware and let you install some distro you find on the Internet. Streetlight did that with one of their albums.

And what happens when someone forks fedora and removes it for their own machine. Who’s the manufacturer then?

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 30 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I am pretty sure anyone will still be able to install a distro/fork from a free country, but steam is unlikely to go this route because convenience is part of the package. They may not even care to resist because they already ask your age for the steam store.

I am more curious what this will do for non standard devices with multiple users. Even kitchen equipment may run a derivative of linux these days and they don't come with keyboard access.

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[–] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 42 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

If the speedrun strategy is "introduce a stupid law, wait for everyone to go 'holy shit none of this can be realistically implemented in this timeframe', wait for OS vendors to just ban the use of the OSes in the country, watch the local industry as a whole to rally and petition the government to stop the madness before there's a new dark age, repeal the clearly stupid law", all before the California law comes to effect - I've got to say it's a bold strategy and we'll see how it plays out.

Edit: Also, not going to upvote a Lunduke video - I'm glad he crams every bit of substantial information in the thumbnails so I can just not listen to him at all

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[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 40 points 1 week ago (6 children)

How on earth are they going to enforce this in smaller IOT chips? I just got an esp32-c3 for like $1.50. I highly doubt that things is able to run whatever bloatware they are going to require.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 26 points 1 week ago

Hardware that can be manufactured on larger nodes can't really be stopped, and the (black) market for both old and new free hardware will be big, considering all the things that will inevitably be banned. As always, don't comply in advance

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[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 39 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The cyberpunk dystopia times arrive at last.

Can't wait for mohawks to come back in style 🌈🤘

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 39 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Man, they really want to find out who they need to murder, don't they?

Because that's the bottom line. Everybody understands that, right?

AI is all about replacing as many human jobs with automation as possible, and the Age/ID laws are about tracking down anyone who complains about it.

This is what we've known was coming for decades. It's finally here.

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[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 33 points 1 week ago

When they make it law to have age verification in your operating system, only outlaws will have operating systems without age verification.

I guess I'm an outlaw then. Enjoy your visit to the wild west, we will always have illegal operating systems aplenty.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Consumer tech fucking sucks. We tried you guys. Time to call it quits on the internet and personal computing. Humans ruin everything.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (6 children)

One question:

"On your first computer, how did you open a program?

Load "*",8,1 ✅

program.exe ✅

Double click the icon ✅

"Program? Is that like an app?" ❌

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[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Lemmy users upvoting Brian Lunduke is surprising. He’s very right wing from what I remember

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 25 points 1 week ago

Downboats for Lunduke

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 36 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Christians. Republicans. ICE. MAGA.

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