Technology

Good. Maybe then future generations won't be as tech illiterate.

Thanks to smart phones, this generation of kids is roughly as tech literate as boomers.

I wouldn't get your hopes up.

While I'm not the average person, my kids have never known anything but Linux or ChromeOS (because school). They game on SteamOS/Bazzite, they use a Linux laptop at home, and they use Android devices. Everything they use, somewhere inside deep down, is powered by Linux.

This is likely an attempt to kill Linux and to an extent FOSS.

If sites require OS level age verification, then you can't visit them if your OS doesn't have it.

I'm sure that was an added benefit, but the market share of Linux users is not that big to give a political care about. This was likely a result of effective lobbying to the right people willing to listen to reason.

ETA: I'm still against Age Verification, and throwing Linux a bone doesn't change that.

Also because there's no logical, effective way to enforce this on FOSS tech

Oh, it'll be just like the "anti-cheat" system, which screws Linux users.

A good day. A good day, indeed.

Their websites and services will ask for age verification and Linux will not provide it.

Therefore Linux systems will be barred from using online services. You will need a proprietary spyware OS in order to continue banking, citizen. Please drink a verification can to continue.

There are some steps you can take in Linux but there are also steps you can take regardless of OS. Gnome has built in parental controls. I’m not sure about the other DEs but Gnome has something. Browsers have had controls for a long time.

For those so inclined, you can set up network wide controls via a PiHole instance. If that’s too restrictive, you can pick and choose your kids’ devices to apply the restrictions. That’s what I do. It was super easy. I just update the block list regularly and test it.

As parents, we need to have some awareness of what our kids do online. I’m all in favor of making it easier for parents to do that and better educating parents on what is available.

The big guys might advertise their “new parental controls” but I doubt they will be advertising against Linux and open source. I’m sure Apple will have a version of this that is slightly more privacy respecting than Microsoft and maybe they’ll advertise that. They don’t care about Linux though. Not from a competitive standpoint, not yet.

So if you want to protect your kids from adult rated content, and you live in California, you need to buy a propietary system.

That’s not at all what this means. You’ve always been free to add any additional parental controls to your kid’s devices, and that hasn’t changed.

I don't think anyone should be using Windows. It's fascist spyware. Windows users don't own their systems, Microsoft does.

It's not just those specific licences, it's:

an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.

https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1856/id/3438064