this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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I wish larger and more popular distros like arch, debian or mint would take a stand aswell. I get ubuntu or fedora having to comply as these are run by american companies, but debian and mint opinion would probably have major sway over the entire ecosystem
Im just curious, but how would arch implement age verification if it wanted to? I mean, its basically just the linux kernel, with supporting software like systemd, no? I know systemd is making moves to add "age verification" in the form of an environment variable or something, but that would be trivial to remove as I think about it off the top of my head, or worst case you would just get a fork of systemd without the age verification if they bake it in too deep and make it so the entire systemd ecosystem doesnt work without that variable set
That's not true. Systemd isn't making moves to add age verification. They added a field to STORE a birth date, which is not enforcing anything. It's like a field in a database. It can be there, but you don't have to use it.
Systemd is not in the position to do anything. The age verification has to be implemented by the OS vendor, not by Systemd. That lie is spread by people with very little knowledge of how linux actually works.
No idea, but there are lots of ways. You could put it into the
archinstallscript and just never finish the installation if there is no age set. You could also prevent a user from logging into an account that has no age set, this could be achived by modified core packages in thebasepackage.However, you will ALWAYS be able to circumvent it as there is no central server to manage it. Nobody is stopping you to put 01.01.1970 into the birthdate field. It's basically as pointless as cookie banners.
The issue about this age verification shit isn't the present, but the future when governments start extending the laws that, at this point, are already in place.
They're being the adults in the room by seeking legal guidance and not prematurely putting their foot in their mouth. We must be patient. The penalties on some of these laws could be fatal, even to the biggest foss players.
And what would those penalties be? If you are not based in the country having these moronic laws, they can't do shit (see: fines for 4chan in the UK, fines for Google in Russia), except maybe 'banning' your distro, which amounts to nothing, since whoever is determined enough can just find it online anyways.
I think they'd just rather not find out. Or, rather, would like to be as prepared as possible to "get away with" not implementing it, or will find some middle way.
The hardliners here will complain that they're not saying "fuck you" to The Man forcefully enough. In reality, they do that just by existing. These guys are the backbone of digital sovereignty. If some of them fold and comply in advance, then yeah, fuck them in particular, but let the others cook. They're fighting for survival, not engaging in fan service.
Legal guidance for what? If California of the USA wants to ban Debian for not requiring age verification, let's see how that pans out for their tech companies.
Legal guidance is not necessary because these laws should not be followed. Stop letting the US impose its will on the rest of the world.
This is my thought process as well. Its ridiculous that a single state of the US - not even the entire country - can have so much sway over a global project.