--- title: Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification... description: A developer named Jeffrey Seathrún Sardina has forked systemd into 'Liberated systemd', removing the recently added birthDate field tied to age verification... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification Support | daily.dev og:description: A developer named Jeffrey Seathrún Sardina has forked systemd into 'Liberated systemd', removing the recently added birthDate field tied to age verification... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4B1f2W6pb.png og:image:alt: Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification Support og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification Support **[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 3 min read · 75 upvotes · 19 comments ## Summary A developer named Jeffrey Seathrún Sardina has forked systemd into 'Liberated systemd', removing the recently added birthDate field tied to age verification laws in California, Colorado, and Brazil. The fork strips out all related code including homectl options, man page entries, and tests. While the birthDate field in mainline systemd is optional, admin-only, and not acted upon by systemd itself, the developer views it as surveillance-enabling code. The fork is currently a one-person project with no releases and is already 37 commits behind upstream, making it unsuitable for production use. The author suggests such forks serve more as protest and conversation starters than serious long-term alternatives. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@l9521787** · 14 upvotes > Obligatory reminder, systemd doesn't actually have Age Verification, just an optional Birthday field. > > The article does explain this but the discourse around the topic has been quite uninformed recently :( **@heckert** · 2 upvotes > ~Wow! Someone removed an optional field, now we are free!~ **@rodlaycock** · 2 upvotes > Although it was an optional date of birth field, with no link into actual verification (yet) thats how yoy move from a position the people want to a position they don't want. You do it in small acceptable steps and the first step is an optional DOB field. > > > The whole point is, I dont live in any if those locations, so why should I be encompassed in acts which are not legal requirements in my country. > > > This all comes around because some parents cannot be bothered to take responsibility for their oen children and want others to put pracrltices in place to do their job for them. > > > This is why... **@8nettsxgbdwguw** · 1 upvotes > Reactionary and childish. **@byteslayer** · 1 upvotes > Haha for the rebelion spirit I kudo this. > > I'm curious on NixOS how it will ends xD probably a "birthyear": "2000" in plain text somewhere :D ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Objections to systemd age-attestation changes go overboard](https://daily.dev/posts/objections-to-systemd-age-attestation-changes-go-overboard-e7jtxgj6f) · Lobsters · 8 upvotes · 2 comments - [Inside the Systemd Age Verification Debate: Developer Responds to Criticism](https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-systemd-age-verification-debate-developer-responds-to-criticism-sjccmoczf) · It's Foss · 24 upvotes · 12 comments - [Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux](https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb) · It's Foss · 54 upvotes · 51 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification Support","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb"},"datePublished":"2026-03-23T15:15:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-23T15:17:17.766Z","description":"A developer named Jeffrey Seathrún Sardina has forked systemd into 'Liberated systemd', removing the recently added birthDate field tied to age verification...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/475cdd48ec58618b462291884cb7f9f2?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/475cdd48ec58618b462291884cb7f9f2?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"It's Foss","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"It's Foss","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/582e3faed71842bfb9d3840a787d6700","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss"},"commentCount":19,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":75},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":19}],"keywords":"open-source,linux","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It's Foss","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification Support"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Obligatory reminder, systemd doesn’t actually have Age Verification, just an optional Birthday field.\nThe article does explain this but the discourse around the topic has been quite uninformed recently :(","datePublished":"2026-03-24T12:27:22.843Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/4B1f2W6pb#c-rLdpBmgif","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"l9521787","url":"https://daily.dev/l9521787","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AAcHTteQ9_ph6p5v02nn2-faHYGHFOWnqVD1uRpitrcpGIoS=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":14}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"~Wow! Someone removed an optional field, now we are free!~","datePublished":"2026-03-26T12:36:51.187Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/4B1f2W6pb#c-VnwIuXfg8","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Aurélio Heckert","url":"https://daily.dev/heckert","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocIlujDQQ-As6W8LE-S6p_9kU8rZjSpZ2RvSAhD7k7ccfQ6pWP3I=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Although it was an optional date of birth field, with no link into actual verification (yet) thats how yoy move from a position the people want to a position they don’t want. You do it in small acceptable steps and the first step is an optional DOB field.\nThe whole point is, I dont live in any if those locations, so why should I be encompassed in acts which are not legal requirements in my country.\nThis all comes around because some parents cannot be bothered to take responsibility for their oen children and want others to put pracrltices in place to do their job for them.\nThis is why we need “Caution contents may be hot” on coffee cups, because some people will always try to blame others for their stupidity and not take responsibility for their actions.\nStop nannying people, let them have a choice. Linux is a choice, a choice to be free and open in the software we run and if you don’t like what your Linux distro does, you have a choice to move distros.","datePublished":"2026-03-28T08:43:34.361Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/4B1f2W6pb#c-k2VDygB74","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rod Laycock","url":"https://daily.dev/rodlaycock","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLTaP7UfWiJp_AZpifDDlq9t_7SBwLD6cyt9sl1MNyqDsX-rwd3tA=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Reactionary and childish.","datePublished":"2026-03-31T05:30:21.187Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/4B1f2W6pb#c-9mw9OAsYr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac","url":"https://daily.dev/8nettsxgbdwguw"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Haha for the rebelion spirit I kudo this.\nI’m curious on NixOS how it will ends xD probably a “birthyear”: “2000” in plain text somewhere :D","datePublished":"2026-03-25T07:35:01.975Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/4B1f2W6pb#c-xtcyxxk88","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Some one","url":"https://daily.dev/byteslayer","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```