Governments around the world are currently attempting to implement strict online child safety measures, fundamentally changing how everyday devices connect to the internet. As part of this push, lawmakers are looking past individual apps and targeting the underlying operating systems. They want the OS itself to verify a user’s age during initial setup. Colorado lawmakers […]

The coordinated effort worked. When lawmakers finalized Colorado SB26-051, they added Section 6-30-105(e) to the text. This specific clause waives compliance for operating systems and applications distributed under licenses that allow copying, modifying, and redistributing without platform-imposed technical restrictions. Why the Section 6-30-105(e) Exemption Protects Decentralized Tech

This exemption establishes a formal legislative precedent for the tech industry. It legally shields free and open-source operating systems from hardware-level age attestation laws that closed ecosystems like iOS and Windows will soon have to follow.

  • stravanasu@lemmy.caEnglish
    374·
    7 hours ago

    How some Linux developers defeated (for now) the new OS age-verification laws. Long live those Linux developers, who “heavily criticized the mandates”, made public statements, and contacted the legislators.

    Because other Linux developers, instead, immediately bent over backwards to start implementing changes towards accommodating those laws; for sure they didn’t heavily criticize the mandates, nor make public statements, nor contact the legislators.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
      12·
      7 hours ago

      They defeated one of the laws in one jurisdiction. The California law is still in place, international laws are still in place, and federal laws are being advanced.