California and Colorado are planning some vaguely-worded laws regarding "age verification". People who supply OSes, computers, accounts on computers, whatever, are required to make a bit (or maybe just a couple of bytes) available to "application developers" so applications know the age bracket of the computer user. Under age 13, age 13 to 16, age 16 to 18, and over 18. Brazil has already passed such a law, and rumor has it many countries in Europe are already planning this. Here is the outlook here in the USA:
I hate to admit my age here (59), but 50 or 60 years ago, our American parents warned us that "MAD MAGAZINE" was going to "warp our minds" or "turn us into a negative people" for the rest of our lives. Then 40 to 50 years ago, our parents warned us that "evil Satanic rock music" was going to turn us into drug-consuming zombies who WORSHIPPED SATAN (or, at the very least, cast spells while standing inside a pentagram in rock musician Stevie Nicks' back yard).
Rignt now, I need to update Linux Mint 18.3 to Linux Mint 22.3. Despite the name, this revision was NOT released in March 2022. It was released in December 2024.
I know this is not the "political thread", but when will people realize legislators just want our votes? They'll give us "security theater" but really give us more surveillance, and more marketing data for Google Ad Services. At first, we can LIE to the computer when we set up accounts for young family members. Then lawmakers will act like they are SHOCKED that people are lying about their birth date in the drop-down setup menu. So pretty soon we'll need to present an ID to Best Buy to purchase a laptop, or send a photocopy of our driving license to Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. Does that mean we must be 18, with a valid ID, before we are ALLOWED on the internet? Much of the work done on computers and the internet has been done by VERY smart people who just happened to be under the age of 18, you know.
And there will be data breaches, YOU CAN BET YOUR LIFE ON IT.
I am starting this thread to monitor Linux compliance, or lack of compliance, with this idiotic regulation. I, personally, will be seeking out distros that DO NOT obey this silliness. Or scripts that can strip it out. Perhaps an RPM (or .deb) package that removes this from the update applet for your particular distribution?
I believe I already heard Canonical (Ubuntu Linux) WILL be going along with this "think of the children" nanny state requirement.
I hate to admit my age here (59), but 50 or 60 years ago, our American parents warned us that "MAD MAGAZINE" was going to "warp our minds" or "turn us into a negative people" for the rest of our lives. Then 40 to 50 years ago, our parents warned us that "evil Satanic rock music" was going to turn us into drug-consuming zombies who WORSHIPPED SATAN (or, at the very least, cast spells while standing inside a pentagram in rock musician Stevie Nicks' back yard).
Rignt now, I need to update Linux Mint 18.3 to Linux Mint 22.3. Despite the name, this revision was NOT released in March 2022. It was released in December 2024.
I know this is not the "political thread", but when will people realize legislators just want our votes? They'll give us "security theater" but really give us more surveillance, and more marketing data for Google Ad Services. At first, we can LIE to the computer when we set up accounts for young family members. Then lawmakers will act like they are SHOCKED that people are lying about their birth date in the drop-down setup menu. So pretty soon we'll need to present an ID to Best Buy to purchase a laptop, or send a photocopy of our driving license to Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. Does that mean we must be 18, with a valid ID, before we are ALLOWED on the internet? Much of the work done on computers and the internet has been done by VERY smart people who just happened to be under the age of 18, you know.
And there will be data breaches, YOU CAN BET YOUR LIFE ON IT.
I am starting this thread to monitor Linux compliance, or lack of compliance, with this idiotic regulation. I, personally, will be seeking out distros that DO NOT obey this silliness. Or scripts that can strip it out. Perhaps an RPM (or .deb) package that removes this from the update applet for your particular distribution?
I believe I already heard Canonical (Ubuntu Linux) WILL be going along with this "think of the children" nanny state requirement.
the gov telling u what u can or cannot watch. i believe that runs afoul of the first amendment, so i think it wont be long before scotus throws its hat into the ring and gets involved with this sorry piece of legislation and has it tossed out for being unconstitutional against the first amendment. 
just wait...
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