EFF, Ubuntu and Other Distros Discuss How to Respond to Age-Verification Laws

Source: Slashdot

Background

System76 isn’t the only one criticizing new age‑verification laws. The blog 9to5Linux published an informal look at discussions happening across various Linux communities.

Ubuntu proposal

Earlier this week Ubuntu developer Aaron Rainbolt suggested on the Ubuntu mailing list an optional D‑Bus interface (org.freedesktop.AgeVerification1) that could be implemented by applications at a distro’s discretion.

Canonical responded that it does not yet have a solution to announce for age declaration in Ubuntu. Jon Seager, VP Engineering at Canonical, said:

“Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel, but there are currently no concrete plans on how, or even whether, Ubuntu will change in response. The recent mailing list post is an informal conversation among Ubuntu community members, not an announcement. While the discussion contains potentially useful ideas, none have been adopted or committed to by Canonical.”

Discussions in other communities

Similar talks are underway in the Fedora and Linux Mint communities in anticipation of the California Digital Age Assurance Act and comparable laws elsewhere.

At the same time, other OS developers—such as MidnightBSD—have decided to exclude California from desktop use entirely.

EFF perspective

Slashdot contacted Hayley Tsukayama, Director of State Affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). She stated that the organization “has long warned against age‑gating the internet. Such mandates strike at the foundation of the free and open internet.”

Problems with the mandates

“Many of these mandates imagine technology that does not currently exist.”

Poorly thought‑out mandates cannot achieve the purported goal of age verification. They are often easy to circumvent and can expose consumers to real data‑breach risk.

These burdens fall particularly heavily on developers who aren’t part of large, well‑resourced companies—such as those creating open‑source software. Ignoring the diversity of software development when considering liability effectively limits software choices at a time when computational power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. This harms users’ and developers’ rights to free expression, digital liberties, privacy, and the ability to create and use open platforms.

A better approach

Rather than creating age gates, a well‑crafted privacy law that empowers all individuals—young people and adults alike—to control how their data is collected and used would be a crucial step in the right direction.