---
title: "Linux Is Too Powerful For Age Check Laws"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/linux-is-too-powerful-for-age-check-laws-iuderippw
source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ0iVWUvvDM
type: video:youtube
source: "Mental Outlaw"
published: 2026-05-28T22:18:07.032Z
updated: 2026-05-28T22:18:27.830Z
tags: ["open-source", "linux", "privacy"]
reading_time: 11
upvotes: 40
comments: 8
language: en
---

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# Linux Is Too Powerful For Age Check Laws

**[Mental Outlaw](https://daily.dev/sources/mentaloutlaw)** · 11 min read · 40 upvotes · 8 comments

## Summary

California and Colorado were pushing laws requiring operating systems to collect and expose user age brackets via APIs for child safety purposes. The legislation would have forced Linux distros to implement mandatory age collection at install/first boot — a near-impossible task given Linux's decentralized nature with no single company, account system, or app store. After pushback from the open source community, both states amended their bills to carve out free and open source software: any OS distributed under licenses allowing users to copy, redistribute, and modify the software (including installing modified versions without platform restrictions) is exempt. Code repositories like GitHub and container registries are also excluded from the 'app store' definition. Android and SteamOS remain in a gray area due to their proprietary wrappers and locked bootloaders. The author frames this as a victory for software freedom, arguing that the ungovernable nature of FOSS — where users can strip out any compliance code and redistribute freely — ultimately forced lawmakers to back down.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ0iVWUvvDM>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@codechini** · 2 upvotes

> Feels good to hear, but should have been the verdict perviously.

**@deepjoshi\_dev** · 1 upvotes

> I just changed my main os from windows to Ubuntu and I've getting new related how windows has finally got better.

**@xtasy\_sensei** · 1 upvotes

> thats a given

**@hexapaws** · 1 upvotes

> who clicked on the post to see that penguin
>
> 👇

**@thatdeveloperguy** · 0 upvotes

> I have no idea why people actually care about this?
> The government already has your age and name and parents on your birth certificate. If you drive a car they have a photo of your face and ID and so much more.

---

Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-is-too-powerful-for-age-check-laws-iuderippw)