California's A.B. 1043 shows where age-gating goes next: into the operating system itself.
EFF is right to call this dangerous. Once the OS becomes an age-signal layer, you are no longer just talking about child safety. You are talking about turning the device itself into part of the compliance machine.
That hits privacy, anonymous access, free expression, and open-source development all at once. It also puts pressure on Linux distributions and smaller projects that were never built to serve as policy enforcement infrastructure.
Read the links below.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/ab-1043s-internet-age-gates-hurt-everyone
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
Should any operating system ever be turned into an age gate?
#Linux #Privacy #DigitalRights #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfExpression #OpenSource #Decentralisation #SelfSovereignty
beitmenotyou1 / Michael J Burgess
npub123…58dpt
2026-03-30 21:19:49 UTC
Author Public Key
npub123j6zd6p5dls3qf2cae3dzqtrgl9vpd942jq6ge8l6mwr7muyy8qv58dptPublished at
2026-03-30 21:19:49 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "California's A.B. 1043 shows where age-gating goes next: into the operating system itself.\n\nEFF is right to call this dangerous. Once the OS becomes an age-signal layer, you are no longer just talking about child safety. You are talking about turning the device itself into part of the compliance machine.\n\nThat hits privacy, anonymous access, free expression, and open-source development all at once. It also puts pressure on Linux distributions and smaller projects that were never built to serve as policy enforcement infrastructure.\n\nRead the links below.\nhttps://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/ab-1043s-internet-age-gates-hurt-everyone\nhttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043\n\nShould any operating system ever be turned into an age gate?\n\n#Linux #Privacy #DigitalRights #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfExpression #OpenSource #Decentralisation #SelfSovereignty",
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