--- title: Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to... description: Systemd has merged a pull request adding an optional `birthDate` field to its userdb JSON user records, responding to age verification laws in California,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux | daily.dev og:description: Systemd has merged a pull request adding an optional `birthDate` field to its userdb JSON user records, responding to age verification laws in California,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HYTRNkTpB.png og:image:alt: Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux 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. # Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux **[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 2 min read · 54 upvotes · 51 comments ## Summary Systemd has merged a pull request adding an optional `birthDate` field to its userdb JSON user records, responding to age verification laws in California, Colorado, and Brazil. The field, stored in YYYY-MM-DD format, can only be set by administrators and is not mandatory. Lennart Poettering clarified that systemd itself does nothing with the data — it simply standardizes the field so other projects like xdg-desktop-portal can build age verification compliance on top of it. A request to repeal the change was rejected, with Poettering noting widespread misunderstanding of the intent. ## 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. **@tsumanu** · 11 upvotes > I'm from EU not some dystopian, oligarchic country like US so I don't have issues with this but I'm shocked who people in US voted to power **@tetius** · 6 upvotes > The title is clickbait. This only adds a field to user profile. User profile already has stuff like address or phone number. **@andradei** · 4 upvotes > Thank you, systemd team, for making me finally hate it enough to switch to a distro without it. **@hemna** · 4 upvotes > why the F did anyone develop this? Reject this shit. **@hemna** · 4 upvotes > I filed a bug against the repo saying that it's illegal to capture personal information of minors and that they would be violating COPPA laws. They not only closed the bug, which isn't surprising, but then actually deleted the bug, so it's not visible to anyone. ## 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 - [Someone Forked Systemd to Strip Out Its Age Verification Support](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-forked-systemd-to-strip-out-its-age-verification-support-4b1f2w6pb) · It's Foss · 75 upvotes · 19 comments - [Age verification on Systemd and Flatpak](https://daily.dev/posts/age-verification-on-systemd-and-flatpak-2dl2onnu2) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb) ```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":"Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb"},"datePublished":"2026-03-20T12:18:15.275Z","dateModified":"2026-03-20T12:20:55.549Z","description":"Systemd has merged a pull request adding an optional `birthDate` field to its userdb JSON user records, responding to age verification laws in California,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f6f381fbc5627013c529239305189608?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f6f381fbc5627013c529239305189608?_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":51,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":54},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":51}],"keywords":"linux","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@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":"Systemd’s New Feature Brings Age Verification Option to Linux"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-s-new-feature-brings-age-verification-option-to-linux-hytrnktpb","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m from EU not some dystopian, oligarchic country like US so I don’t have issues with this but I’m shocked who people in US voted to power","datePublished":"2026-03-21T15:04:08.554Z","dateModified":"2026-03-22T05:28:56.318Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HYTRNkTpB#c-F5OpCR2tL","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Adrian","url":"https://daily.dev/tsumanu","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--bbTggVj0--/f_auto/v1729056978/avatars/avatar_o83yJZhDlLH2O7iL41pEg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The title is clickbait. This only adds a field to user profile. User profile already has stuff like address or phone number.","datePublished":"2026-03-24T08:25:46.942Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HYTRNkTpB#c-EcAms31IH","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"K","url":"https://daily.dev/tetius","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Thank you, systemd team, for making me finally hate it enough to switch to a distro without it.","datePublished":"2026-03-23T16:13:52.870Z","dateModified":"2026-03-23T16:14:03.261Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HYTRNkTpB#c-BADtw2Pr8","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac de Andrade","url":"https://daily.dev/andradei","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2653546?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"why the F did anyone develop this? Reject this shit.","datePublished":"2026-03-24T00:21:34.651Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HYTRNkTpB#c-eY7nc1j07","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Chewbacca","url":"https://daily.dev/hemna","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/672207?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I filed a bug against the repo saying that it’s illegal to capture personal information of minors and that they would be violating COPPA laws. They not only closed the bug, which isn’t surprising, but then actually deleted the bug, so it’s not visible to anyone.","datePublished":"2026-03-24T11:20:26.152Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/HYTRNkTpB#c-CHcrWB2Gz","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Chewbacca","url":"https://daily.dev/hemna","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/672207?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}}]} ```