Is systemd going to embrace age checks?
post
I'm really getting the vibe that this is a convenient use of the slippery slope fallacy by people that already hate on systemd for other reasons.
I don't really understand that hate either, but hey, everyone needs a hobby.
I wouldn't really call it age verification, more like an optional field you can put in a date if you want
That's just the first step before they require you to upload your id. Don't let in the trojan horse.
I'd argue the opposite. If we want to restrict access of kids under 14 to social media for example, then the parents should just be able to tell the device/browser, that they should inform the websites that the user is under 14. not the exact birthday, not even the year, just <14, <16, maybe <18, so that the website can adjust accordingly. That would be way less invasive then having everyone show their ID on account creation.
I've already taken the necessary precautions by uploading my semen into the drive tray.
I am very anti-age-verification laws, because they tend to be pro-identification-laws. But adding a simple field signifying the age of the current user is probably as good as it gets, although i would have preferred a single-bit-solution (of age/not of age) or at max 2 bits (<14, <16, <18, of age). Using this to go after Systemd again is a) not gonna work, because it's here to stay and b) i am very interested in how others will implement the legal requirements.
Your country's definition of "of age" and my country's definition of it is likely to differ. Easier to just implement a birthdate field than try to cover all the global legislations for these things. Especially when there are multiple conditions for "of age" in a single country. Old enough to vote? Old enough to drink? Those are often not the same.
Most of the laws aim for social media, so the 2 bit solution should be enough for most legislation. I would propose an "Birthday" field for legislations where an exact date is needed (which shouldn't be, because it's allowing every tracker to identify the DoB) and the "2 bits" for the rest. In my country the ages are 16 for drinking beer/voting and 18 for "mature"/hard liquors/tobacco.
This has some serious cope to it
Systemd is here to stay. You don't have to use it but it isn't going anywhere.
OpenRC and sysvinit are probably the best options out there, and dinit looks promising. Personally, though, I like s6.
its age attestation, not verification, and linux is still going to have to comply with the law either way. being open source does not give us immunity from whatever laws are passed. if you have a problem with it, keep the law from being passed in the first place.
you can still reach out to the people who make those decisions and try to get people ti understand why age verification and attestation are bad. theres no point getting mad at companies for complying with the law. arguing how they're doing it is fine but complaining they're doing something they literally have to is just whining.
The first step is adding the field, the next step is interfacing it with persona.
might just be forgetting smth but I have no idea what you mean by persona. so far though, all sys76 have done is work towards supporting something they are about to be legally required to do in the state they're based in (co), even if they did it in a kind of sucky way.
all 28 comments