Tootfinder

Well, of course they would say that. They want to be in control of absolutely everything. You'd think people would be wise to "think of the children!" whining by now, but we seem to be leaning into it even harder! https://cyberinsider.com/eu-calls-vpns

Kids Bypass Age Verification With Fake Moustaches - Slashdot https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/05/1540226/kids-bypass-age-verification-with-fake-moustaches

Internet age verification proposals restrict the fundamental rights of young people to speak to each other and to access information.
They also force all internet users,
not just those under a certain age,
to upload private data
—like a face scan or passport
—in order to access a website or service.
In considering the vast scope of privacy issues pertaining to the collection, storage, and sharing of this personal information,
the problems of age veri…

Internet Age-Gates Are a Growing Global Threat
The internet is an essential resource for young people and adults to access information, explore community, and find themselves—both inside countries and across continents. Yet governments around the world continue to introduce and implement legislation requiring all online users to verify their ages before accessing the digital space.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody/116544062044134028
FWIW I'm using multiple different VPNs daily for work, for reasons that have nothing to do either age verification or anything else "illegal":
1. My main ISP's connection is brittle and causes dropped data transfers on larger files; a VPN solves this completely
2. I'm using a VPN to manage servers securely (allows me to not have open ports for SSH etc. on the public Internet)
3. When I'm out of the office, a VPN allows me to access my desktop computer, my file server and even to quickly print something.
If they wanted to establish a police state they could just say so.

My opinion on all the "age verification" controversy:
Maybe we just all pretend to be children? stop using all the "adult" things and see how it goes?
Maybe we can still communicate with each other via Minecraft or something? 🤔

Given that "age authentication" is all the rage, I have a question:
Do the live-begins-at-conception republicans count that age for verification from conception or birth?

MX Linux Pushes Back Against Age Verification: A Stand for Privacy and Open Source Principles :mxlinux: 👏
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/mx-linux-pushes-back-against-age-verification-stand-privacy-and-open-sou…

Wisconsinites Can Keep Watching Porn After Governor Vetoes Age Verification Bill https://www.404media.co/wisconsin-age-verification-bill-vetoed/

Do you solve that by banning Utah residents from using your website? 🤷‍♂️
"Utah's Online Age Verification Amendments, formally Senate Bill 73, take effect on May 6, making the state the first in the U.S. to explicitly target VPN use as part of age verification legislation."
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/vpn/utah-becomes-first-us-state-to-target-vpn-use-with-age-verification-law

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/116699114769829765
Age verification: protecting kids from GrapheneOS since 2026.
The fucking state of everything, I swear!

"The surveillance state runs on volunteers: people who do the implementation work for free, out of genuine conviction, with no paper trail connecting them to the money that wrote the laws."
https://www.sambent.com/the-engineer-who-tried-to-put-ag…

I like to think this is due to the single email I sent to my state representative.
https://ostechnix.com/colorado-california-age-verification-law-open-source-exempt/

Linux Is Exempt From Colorado and California's Age Verification Laws - OSTechNix
Colorado's SB 26-051 and California's AB 1856 require OS-level age verification, but Linux and open-source software are largely exempt.

Looks like they covered all the buzzwords in their solution. And so much complexity which can (and will) go wrong 🙄
New Company Hopes to Build Age-Verification Tech into Vape Cartridges - Slashdot https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/3

It is ironic that the European Commission has introduced a verification method by which its citizens must have their smartphones with them all the time.
https://theprivacydad.com/a-first-look-at-the-eu-age-verification-app/

Guess who's behind the sudden rush of age verification legislation?
In the US, #Meta is spending $26.3 Million to hire at least 86 Lobbyists from 40 lobbying firms, and lobbying in at least 45 states. It is confirmed that Meta wrote the Louisiana age verification bill.
In the EU, Meta is spending ten million euros annually on lobbying, retaining 18 lobbying firms.
Age verificat…

The EU Commission’s Approach to Age Verification: Mobile Apps, DSA Enforcement, and Challenging National Social Media Bans
https://fpf.org/blog/the-eu-commissions-approach-to-age-verification-mobile-a…

California moves to exempt Linux from its upcoming age-verification law
after backlash over forcing operating systems to collect users’ ages
— The amendment is proposed by the same lawmaker who wrote the original law

California moves to exempt Linux from its upcoming age-verification law after backlash over forcing operating systems to collect users’ ages — amendment proposed by the same lawmaker who wrote the original law
SteamOS could still be affected

UK iPhone and iPad Users Can Watch Porn Again https://www.404media.co/uk-iphone-ipad-ios-users-porn-age-verification/

Who does not like Linux when the will to resist is the hallmark of the community.
Age verification in the OS? No, not with Ageless OS
https://itsfoss.com/news/ageless-linux/?ref=foss-weekly-newsletter

European Commission advertised an age checking app. Hackers discovered it took 2 minutes to break it.
The good news is the EU open-sourced the app from the beginning. The bad news is the EU did not think of assessing the security of such a sensitive app before making a political statement.

Age verification, but you just have to say how much a movie ticket should cost.
https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/@neil/116438578273419908j
@…

Anyone wanna crash course me in the OS level age check stuff for GNU Linux specifically?
#linux #age_verification

Not enough people are talking about the rationale for systemd introducing the age field in userdbd (which is *not* mandatory and currently fully *optional*). In the very post here, it is clear that they are doing it because xdg-desktop-portal(!) is adding an age verification thingy (and potentially also accountsservice). This IMO is *far* more dangerous because those components are essential nowadays.

userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #40954 · systemd/systemd
Stores the user's birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. The xdg-desktop-portal project is addi...

The discussion around "age verification" in systemd/XDG has been largely focused against the California law. But honestly, there's a much deeper problem there.
Firstly, the data collected. The question initially asked is "are you at least 18 years old?" However, that's not the data collected. In fact, the data collected is not even the age — it's the full birth date. It's a perfect example of collecting more data than you need, and a sensitive information too, and sharing it with any application that asks.
Secondly, the extended goal of "parental controls" used as a justification to collect more data. When you think about it, you realize how bad this is: it isn't the case of asking the user about their birth date (with the assumption that a kid will enter a fake date to workaround the limitations). It is effectively a tool for *parents* to impose restrictions on their children, which means that they are more likely to enter the real date to ensure that these restrictions work. And given how popular sharenting is today, do you really think they'd come up with a fake birth date that happens to roughly match their child's age?
This is simply irresponsible.
https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/pull/1922

The EU digital age verification app.
Statement:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_26_817
The technology (opensource):

I've seen a bunch of "the CA age verification law is the best way to do a bad thing and so we shouldn't oppose compliance" takes, which others are rightly pointing out is a bad stance because it's blindingly obvious that compliance now sets the stage for compliance later and the clearly set up later is mandatory verification of age data. Even if you think that, for example, California's current "progressive" government won't go there, we're all currently seeing just how easy it is for a new government to pick up the oppressive tools the "good" government was using "restraint" with and put them to worse ends.
On the other hand, I'll freely admit that distros *do* need a way to shield themselves from liability right now. The clear (to me; IANAL) correct solution is to say on your website "don't download this OS if you're in a jurisdiction where it's not legal for us to provide it."). Assuming this does put you in the clear liability-wise, it has several positive effects:
- Stops zero people from downloading it.
- Makes it clear that your project will not collaborate with fascists/oppressive regime enjoyers.
- Means that when the next law makes verifying user ages mandatory (and/or explicitly requires using Palantir-adjacent services to do so) you've already got a strategy in place and there's no need for a "debate" in your "community" about compliance.
- Gets users more practice with "the law is malicious/needlessly bureaucratic/oppressive; let's ignore it" which to be honest people in general clearly desperately need at this point.
- Is the most effective political move if you want to resist the way things are going. Forcing the other side to explain why "California bans Linux" is good rhetorical strategy. Make *them* try to explain "well it's actually not so harmful since we let users set it themselves" and answer your follow-up "but what if next year the requirements change; I just refuse to go along with this slippery slope stuff and I'm not bothered if that means you want to *ban* me."
#AgeVerification

In a time of creeping bullshit age verification, users of VPNs, private browsing sessions, the dark web (Tor), the small web, and Gemini shall have serious advantages

Just another reminder that with Windows, your computer is not your computer. This along with the age verification which will lead to online surveillance should be a major concern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQUYh4iKsB0

@…, bro, this you?
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-brussels-launched-age…

Brussels launched an age checking app. Hackers say it took them 2 minutes to break it.
Cyber experts say they have found holes in Brussels’ age verification app, despite claims by the EU executive that it is “technically ready.”

I’m confused as to why Von der Leyen is referring to “an app” (3:05 min) in her Age Verification announcement this week (https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/stories/M-009975).
I doesn't read like there will be one app for all EU citizens:
“One common set of standar…

Some common sense in the Apple age verification business.

Entertaining and well-reasoned piece from @… on the stupidity and futility of age verification https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/19/shes…

@…, wat is jullie standpunt op de age verification app van de EU en wetten rondom age verification? (https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@E

I think the reason Meta et al are pushing for the OS age thing is that they know there's no way that anything they can do themselves for age verification will satisfy the regulators and/or cause them to have to pass data to 3rd party dodgy verifiers; they'll always get the blame if kids find a way around it if it's done at their end.

RE: https://toot.cafe/@soapdog/116290204253136215
“So it failed age verification and locked me out of many features. Bear in mind, I am 45 years old. I have an Apple account for 25 years, the age of my personal account alone should already verify my age.
C…

@paranormal_distribution@fosstodon.org
Yes and no.
Most ID-Cards in EU have a cryptographic chip that enables verification of identity via a NFC-coupled Smartphone-App.
But in some member-states only *authorities* can use it.
Not everywhere the *private sector* can use it.
I dont know which countries allow to control which data to give away, e.g. only age verification.
How does the e-DO App in Poland handle this?
Here is an overview:

It seems so California-centric that the *only* means that Apple supports for age verification in the UK is driving licence or credit card (not debit card) - of which many UK adults have neither.

Obacht, im Windschatten der #Alterskontrolle -Kampagne wird gerade zunehmend für ein effektives #VPN-Verbot geworben.
#Utah macht kommende Woche in den Staaten den Auftakt, aber auch unsere EU-Vizepräside…

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week
For the last couple of years, we’ve watched the same predictable cycle play out across the globe: a state (or country) passes a clunky age-verification mandate, and, without fail, Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage surges as residents scramble to maintain their privacy and anonymity. We've seen...

6. Further damning items 3 and 4, centralizing technological control is dangerous; systems like those propped up by the current age verification mania are the infrastructure of an authoritarian panopticon regardless of their putative purpose.

@… Life would be so much easier if people just used @… . The issuer of the document could verify the age of the users and they could just anonymously pass this verification to each platform that needs age verification.

We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in:
mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitive biometric data that will inevitably be breached.
Every single time.
And every single time it happens,
the politicians who mandated these systems and the companies that built them act shocked—shocked!
—that collecting enormous databases of government IDs, facial scans, and bio…

Hackers Expose The Massive Surveillance Stack Hiding Inside Your “Age Verification” Check
We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in: mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitiv…

Proposal: we allow AI stuff to exist on the Internet, but legally confine it to domains under the .slop TLD, and subject it to the same sort of stringent age verification as porn in order to protect Boomers from getting hoodwinked by it.

What I don't understand with all this age verification stuff in systemd and other places is, if I want to know how old a person is on my software/website, why would I ask the OS?

Switching from Arch to Slackware because of age verification, while all the Ubuntu users are switching from Ubuntu to Arch because of AI.

«#Proton CEO warns global #ageVerification push will mean "the death of anonymity #online"
Protecting children #online

Proton CEO warns global age verification push will mean "the death of anonymity online"
Protecting children online is crucial, but forcing every user to hand over their ID is a privacy nightmare waiting to happen, according to the head of the Swiss privacy firm

Age verification in #Gentoo: if you're using Gentoo, you must be old enough. Problem solved.
#shitposting

I like to think this is due to the single email I sent to my state representative.
https://ostechnix.com/colorado-california-age-verification-law-open-source-exempt/

Here it is at last: the EU age verification framework (dependent on the continuing goodwill of two American teracorps) https://ageverification.dev/

The best part about all this age verification bullshit everywhere is that it's just going to inspire and push people to find ways around it. People will find ways, and they already are.

13yo: "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD"
me: "What?"
13yo: "Can we get an owl?"
me: "Uhh... what?"
13yo: "Can we get an owl?"
(Maybe age verification is a good idea after all? I don't want my kids getting Ideas from the internet..)

This is a good time to go disable systemd-userdbd if you haven't already (re: systemd complying in advance with bullshit age verification stuff).
Debian has it as a separate package which is optional, so you can uninstall it unless you use systemd-homed (another optional component).

Sources:
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/18/systemd_260/
https://www.

For 30 years, we were fine with an unencumbered internet. For 20ish years, we've had social media, and blogs before that. An entire generation was raised on the internet (I'd argue for the better).
And now, all of the sudden in the year 2026, every government on the planet is mysteriously deciding that we urgently need to do age verification.