This is about the California bill which will require operating systems to ask users for their age when they are installed. It may well help some people who want age appropriate experience on their computer, if it takes off and developers build apps that respond to it - but you can put anything you like in the age field so it is not intended to be robust.
It’s nothing to be scared of. It passed both chambers in California in a unison vote so not one legislator either Democrat or Republican had any issues with it.
First, it won’t take effect until January 1, 2027
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
What stories like this don’t explain to you about this California bill is that
It just means the operating system has to ask you what your age is or when your birthday is when it starts up.
You can put in anything you like in the field.
You can say you are 100 if you want. Or 18
there are NO fines for minors that bypass it
there are no fines for the operating system provider if minors bypass it - the bill explicitly says that
“An operating system provider … that makes a good faith effort to comply with this title … shall NOT BE LIABLE for an erroneous signal indicating a user’s age range” [EMPHASIS MINE]
Open source / free operating systems like Linux likely won’t even bother to pop up that box
many will just add a line to their End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) saying “this operating system is not designed for users in California” or some such.
And of course you can still use these operating systems in California despite them saying that it’s not designed for California
but it protects them from prosecution
As an example, that is what Midnight OS is doing. It is not blocking you from downloading the software in California. It just says
MidnightBSD is not offered in jurisdictions that require operating system distributors or developers to implement mandatory age-verification mechanisms …
Except to the extent prohibited by applicable open source licenses governing individual components, individuals located in such jurisdictions are not authorized to download, install, access, use, or distribute compiled MidnightBSD releases unless all applicable legal requirements are independently satisfied.
…
Certain jurisdictions may instead require age-attestation or parental-control functionality. MidnightBSD may provide optional tools, including aged(8), that users can configure for their own compliance purposes. However, the MidnightBSD Project does not represent or warrant that use of any such tool satisfies the laws or regulations of any jurisdiction.
A current list of unsupported jurisdictions, if any, may be published separately on the MidnightBSD website and may change without notice.
https://www.midnightbsd.org/download/
So they say that they
- may include tools that the users can configure for their own jurisdictions.
- So they will likely add a simple switch of some sort that lets you repackage their OS with an age verification prompt when someone installs it.
- Likely that companies that make computers pre-installed with MidnightBSD say will configure them to ask the user for their age during setup
- But they won’t provide that version themselves.
That is just legalize to protect the developers.
Of course anyone in California can download the software from their website.
They just aren’t authorized by MidnightBSD to do that. And (once it is programmed) they can add this field if they want to.
- it is EASY for large operating system companies like Apple or Microsoft to build in a feature in the operating system that is only activated in a particular state so it will only affect you in California for instance they do this for
- how dates are displayed
- or numbers,
- or to set the time zone for your computer,
- or keyboard layout etc.
[More on that below]
So adults and kids can put whatever they want into the field.
This field could potentially be useful for kids if it does get widely adopted. Kids could enter their real ages to get more age appropriate experiences from the apps they download and install.
Possibly also it could be useful for an age-appropriate experience of the operating system too if there is anything age-inappropriate for kids in it.
The apps don’t get to see the age but just which age band the user is in. The app gets to see if the user of the computer self declares to be 13+, 16+ or 18+ and no other information.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
Not yet optimized for streaming services and video game developers
The legislation was passed unanimously by the California legislature in both houses, 76-0 in the Assembly and 38-0 in the Senate. Gavin Newsome signed it into law but said it needs to be modified by Jan 2027 for streaming services and video game developers
Streaming services and video game developers contend that this bill’s framework, while well-suited to traditional software applications, does not fit their respective products. Many of these companies have existing age verification systems in place, addressing complexities such as multi-user accounts shared by a family and user profiles utilized across multiple devices. As this bill does not take effect until January 1, 2027, I urge the Legislature to enact legislation in 2026 to address these particular concerns.
https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AB-1043-Signing-Message.pdf
Does no age verification just asks for you to enter your age or date of birth
It is not an age verification bill. It could be implemented as just a text field
Enter your birth date [xx / xx /xx ]
OR enter your age xxx
Shown to the user when they first log in
The law makes it clear that this is the only information needed.
In 798.501 (a) 1 it says that the operating system must
- Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device
In 798.501 (a) it says that the bill
- does not require the collection of additional personal information from device owners or device users other than that which is necessary to comply with Section 1798.501.
And all that is necessary to comply with 798.501 (a) 1 is an accessible interface (so you can use it if you are blind or need large print etc) so that you can enter your date of birth or age.
QUOTE STARTS
798.501.
(a) An operating system provider shall do all of the following:
(1) Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store.
…
(b) This title does not require the collection of additional personal information from device owners or device users other than that which is necessary to comply with Section 1798.501.
….
(b) An operating system provider or a covered application store that makes a good faith effort to comply with this title, taking into consideration available technology and any reasonable technical limitations or outages, shall not be liable for an erroneous signal indicating a user’s age range or any conduct by a developer that receives a signal indicating a user’s age range.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
Then an app doesn’t get to see the exact age.
The app sees a series of check boxes
13+ ✅
16+ ✅
18+ ✅
The OS has to provide a routine that an application can call to find out which of those checkboxes applies.
It might be useful for parents who want to age-gate a kid’s account perhaps. But it would depend on whether any apps are coded to take account of it.
It wouldn’t be major by way of a coding effort. It needs to be done by Jan 1, 2027. I can’t find any legal challenges.
As Tom’s hardware puts it:
QUOTE STARTS
The law does not require photo ID uploads or facial recognition, with users instead simply self-reporting their age, setting AB 1043 apart from similar laws passed in Texas and Utah that require “commercially reasonable” verification methods, such as government-issued ID checks. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who authored the bill, said this “avoids constitutional concerns by focusing strictly on age assurance, not content moderation,” in a press release. The bill passed both chambers unanimously, 76-0 in the Assembly and 38-0 in the Senate."
Despite signing it, Newsom issued a statement urging the legislature to amend the law before its effective date, citing concerns from streaming services and game developers about “complexities such as multi-user accounts shared by a family member and user profiles utilized across multiple devices.” Whether amendments will materialize before January 2027 remains to be seen.
Enforcement against Linux distributions, however, is likely to be problematic. Distros like Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, and Gentoo have no centralized account infrastructure, with users downloading ISOs from mirrors worldwide, and can modify source code freely. These small distros lack legal teams or resources to implement the required API, so a more realistic outcome for non-compliant distros is a disclaimer that the software is not intended for use in California.
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/operating-systems/california-introduces-age-verification-law
So for Linux distributions it likely just has a disclaimer that the software is not intended for use in California. But of course nothing to stop people in California from downloading and using it.
Examples of time zones, number formats etc to show how easily the major operating systems could localize to just California - they can even detect which time zone you are in Texas
To see how easy it is for Microsoft
As an example when you install Windows then it installs different language packs and different keyboard layouts depending on where you are.
- In the UK it will default to the UK layout with the £ symbol above the 3 and dollar above the 4.
- In an EU country it assumes the EU layout with a euro symbol €
- in the US it has the @ symbol above the 3. In the UK the @ is above the ;
https://keyshorts.com/blogs/blog/us-keyboard-layout-everything-you-need-to-know
Simlarly the way dates are displayed on your computer differ,
- in the US they are month /' day / year
- in the UK they are day / month / year.
The way that numbers are displayed in the operating system
- in UK and the USA has commas as 1,000,000.35 with the commas every three 0s but with a period for the decimal.
- For France and in some other European countries it is 1.000.000,35 with the symbols reversed.
Period for the 000 separator and comma for the decimal.
- In India a million is shown as 10,00,000 as they have only two zeroes and count in Lakh’s where a lakh is 1,00,000. And a comma every two hours from then on so ten million is 1,00,00,000 and a billion in India is 1,00,00,00,000
Then even more granular
- Wherever you install it the Windows operating system is able to figure out the appropriate time zone including things like whether you have a difference between summer and winter time wherever you are.
- Some states like Texas even have two time zones, most of Texas is Central Time but the Western part is Mountain Time
Windows is able to figure that out during installation using signals like your wi fi and IP address.
So it would just be a regional setting for California like the many other regional settings on your computer.
- In California the OS pops up a field to enter your age or birthday when you install the operating system
- Everywhere else it doesn’t pop up anything
Ideas to use an operating system for robust age verification - could be very secure - even OS doesn’t see your ID - but has many practical difficulties - e.g. for computers in public libraries
There are SEPARATE ideas to use an operating system for age verification similarly to K-ID or Yoti.
That could be done securely and in a privacy-respecting way so that even the operating system never gets to see the ID and the ID isn’t retained. All that is retained is the age range.
That has some pluses to it, but it has minuses too. Especially for shared computers. Users who use the same account for people with different ages.
It is not happening and (PERSONAL OPINION MAY BE WRONG), I think it’s unlikely to happen at least not required, it might be optional.
At any rate it’s not happening anywhere yet. I’ll say here why I think it’s unlikely.
Microsoft does have Windows set up so that you can have multiple accounts but a family might want to have everyone use the same account and just enter passwords to enter websites.
Also some people use computers at public libraries. Or work. Or they may borrow a friend’s computer to check their facebook (say). Or internet cafes (though these are rare now).
They won’t want to have to show their government ID to the computer every time they use it and it wouldn’t work anyway. Because the idea is that the age is set once and for ever (though adjustable). Not that you change it every day - that would remove most of the value of doing it at the operating system level rather than on a website.
You can do it once and done for a website account so there is not much point in doing it at OS level for rented or borrowed computers.
Also the other way around it would be a reason for kids to borrow an adult’s computer to get past age verification.
It just seems very messy and complicated.
So - at least so far nowhere seems to be legally requiring robust age verification for operating systems - not in any bill that has passed into law or has a serious chance of it.
And there are many issues with requiring robust age verification at OS level that you don’t get if you have the same requirement for users of social media at the account level.
So (PERSONAL OPINION MAY BE WRONG) I think it’s unlikely that this is the eventual solution.
It could be an OPTIONAL solution for some people. To have a computer that is age verified to be 18+ or under 18 so that you can use your device for age verifiation instead of the lieks of K-ID but - seems a bit unlikely this becomes required unless there is some solution to it all I’m missing.
What do you think?
There is nothing in this to be scared of anyway whatever happens.
