Age Verification

Duke Nukem · 2026-03-18 10:18:09

How, if at all, is Devuan going to react to the movements in age verification?

In some jurisdictions, including Texas and California, it is to be a legal requirement by next year (AFAIR) to put some sort of flag in the operating system to indicate the user's age, and in Brazil it became so just yesterday - the extremely short notice (a couple of weeks) shows how little politicians understand tech. The end goal, presumably, is for all websites and software to have an age rating so that the OS will block them if they do not match the flag in the OS. I don't want to go into it all here, but Lunduke gives an update in the YouTube video below.

The penalties for non-compliance in Brazil are astronomical, $millions per infringement, meaning per user! That is similar to the penalties under the related UK Online Safety Act. It is not yet clear what the big players, Microsoft, Apple, and Android, are doing about it. Some journalist asked Microsoft and the PR person they spoke to seemed unaware of it, and taken aback!

Seems that Ubuntu and some others are complying under some protest, while some small distros are simply putting up a notice saying something like "Not for use in Brazil".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1q8OFEBt0Y

tux_99 · 2026-03-18 13:17:34

Is Devuan a legal entity? If yes in which country? If not, who are those countries making these laws supposed to hold responsible? Certainly not individual devs located all over the world and often not even easily identifiable.

In practice these local laws only have relevance for companies or legal entities who have some kind of presence in the territories affected by these laws.

but I guess some kind of disclaimer such as "Not for use in Brazil/California/whatever" doesn't hurt and is easily done but IMHO that's not really necessary as the standard FOSS licenses disclaimer ("THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.") should already cover that.

With operating systems that don't come preinstalled on a device it is ultimately the user who decides to download and install it who is responsible for it, not the creators, as the creators cannot know where it will be installed and how it will be used.

This is nothing new really, for example there has always been the issue of software patents which apply to the US but not to many other parts of the world and non-commercial non-US based distros have always ignored these local US laws, as they don't apply to them.

Last edited by tux_99 (2026-03-18 15:36:42)

tux_99 · 2026-03-18 14:41:10

BTW, for those more interested in removing any age tracking and compliance software from their installs which some distros are already discussing and implementing the following initiative has been started:
https://github.com/AntiSurv/oss-anti-surveillance

OSS Anti Surveillance
Tracking, documenting, opposing, removing, and reversing OS-level surveillance mechanisms in free software distributions.
Mission
OSS Anti Surveillance exists to document and resist attempts to turn free software distributions into surveillance, classification, or policy-enforcement endpoints.
This project opposes:
OS-level age verification
age signaling and age-bracket APIs
client-side scanning and device-side inspection
metadata and portal layers repurposed for compliance
downstream inheritance of surveillance mechanisms
geo-fencing users out of free software in response to coercive law
Free software distributions must remain general-purpose systems under user control. They must not become infrastructure for categorizing, filtering, or monitoring people on behalf of states, platforms, or third-party services.
Non-negotiable position
This project does not exist to help design a cleaner implementation path for surveillance mechanisms in free software. It exists to document them, oppose them, and prepare their removal.
The central error in many of the implementation discussions tracked here is not a particular daemon, schema, API, portal, or packaging choice. The central error is accepting the premise that general-purpose free operating systems should be discussing how to build these mechanisms at all.
That premise is rejected here.
No implementation path is acceptable. Not in a user record. Not in account metadata. Not in a portal. Not in an installer. Not as a minimal age bracket. Not as an opaque token. Not as a temporary compromise. Not as a jurisdiction-specific feature.

Last edited by tux_99 (2026-03-18 14:44:12)

Kelsoo · 2026-03-19 09:37:20

A little light reading for you.

https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments … ts_and_45/
https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2 … 00018.html a little light relief
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954 Coming to systemd
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question … 175762747/ discussion
https://reclaimthenet.org/brazil-digita … cation-law
https://agelesslinux.org/index.html

pcalvert · Yesterday 23:45:38

A recently published video about this topic that I just finished watching:

Age Verification Mandates: The ‘Protect the Kids’ Scam That’s Building a Permanent Surveillance Grid
https://rumble.com/v76jf94-age-verification-mandates-the-protect-the-kids-scam-thats-building-a-perman.html

swanson · Today 07:33:24

An interesting thread over at Antix forum:

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic … ll-s8102a/

It seems to be a really serious problem.

Devarch · Today 13:26:55

It seems like I'll stop using internet except some official sh*t

It seems also that someone is already working on random credentials, but it's still like playing somebody else's game restricted by some rules which are not respected by the game owner.

pcalvert · Today 14:35:22

Someone did quite a bit of research on this. Meta is behind the push for OS-level age verification.

The TBOTE Project
https://tboteproject.com/

Meta Platforms: Lobbying, Dark Money, and the App Store Accountability Act
https://tboteproject.com/git/hekate/attestation-findings

Devarch · Today 19:13:38

https://agelesslinux.org/

The become-ageless.sh script allows any already installed Debian system to be converted into Ageless Linux. The script replaces the /etc/os-release file and includes information about non-compliance with age verification laws (COMPLIANCE_STATUS="refused", API_STATUS="refused", VERIFICATION_STATUS="flagrantly noncompliant"). It also adds a /etc/ageless/ directory containing reports on violated laws, as well as implements a prototype of a dummy API for applications to obtain user age information.

Enjoy

Last edited by Devarch (Today 19:14:06)

Duke Nukem · Today 21:05:54

Lunduke ( https://x.com/lundukejournal/status/2034697759291310115 ) found a statement from J@Dyne.org that :

Founder of @DevuanOrg (a Systemd-free fork of Debian) has declared that Devuan Linux "will remove age verification" that they inherit from projects they base upon.

Meanwhile, the agelesslinux.org protest is a nice thought but won't be of any help in using the web. When this sh1t is all up and running, a website simply wont let you in unless you provide it with a verified age confirmation. Or unless the website is an illicit one, maybe hosted in a part of the world that doesn't care about it. Maybe there will be some hacks to spoof verification.

This is going to devastate small and amateur websites. I have seen proposals to implement age bands, like 0-12, 13-15, 15-18 and >18 years old. Now I as an amateur have a small website with a down-loadable game which some could consider a bit violent. So how would I rate it? Or will I need to pay some censor authority to rate it like they would a movie film? If I rate it myself wrongly I could be bankrupted by a fine in £millions. In the UK it has been reported by someone who monitors this stuff that thousands of websites have already been pulled by their owners rather than risk a misstep.

The fact that these fines for infringing age verification are so huge reveals the mindset and ignorance of those making these laws up : they think the internet consists only of giant social media sites, email and P0rnhub - and nothing else.

Last edited by Duke Nukem (Today 21:12:45)

Devarch · Today 21:48:38

So how would I rate it? Or will I need to pay some censor authority to rate it like they would a movie film? If I rate it myself wrongly I could be bankrupted by a fine in £millions. In the UK it has been reported by someone who monitors this stuff that thousands of websites have already been pulled by their owners rather than risk a misstep.

Don't worry. I believe it's not for a long time. The world war III iis coming.

Last edited by Devarch (Today 21:48:50)

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#1 2026-03-18 10:18:09

Age Verification

#2 2026-03-18 13:17:34

Re: Age Verification

#3 2026-03-18 14:41:10

Re: Age Verification

#4 2026-03-19 09:37:20

Re: Age Verification

#5 Yesterday 23:45:38

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#6 Today 07:33:24

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#7 Today 13:26:55

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#8 Today 14:35:22

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#9 Today 19:13:38

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#10 Today 21:05:54

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#11 Today 21:48:38

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