So it begins. Right now it just asks you your age, and doesn't do anything else. For now.

Fine.

I'll just script it to change randomly every day.

My computer will never require an age check. Because it is mine.

Fine, have to suck up the initial crossover period, but Linux it is then.

2027, the year of the typewriter once again?

If such non-sense was to ever reach the EU (good luck, USA), which is quite likely seeing the non-sense we have already going on, and If I'm ever required to prove my age/ID in order to be allowed to use 'my' computer, said computer will instantly be disconnected from the Internet and turned back into what I always used mine for: a glorified typewriter.

And if for some even more absurd reason that was not doable, I would dust off the Olympia SG1, a typewriter from the 1950s that I inherited from my grandfather in the early 70s... The same typewriter I used up well into the 80s to publish my first texts and fanzines of back then, before I switched to a computer and a printer.

This 70 year-old or so typewriter still works perfectly well today, and the only updates it requires is once in a while a new ink ribbon which one can still purchase. Plus, it looks as cool as it ever looked ;)

And good luck forcing it to check my age or ID before I can type on it.

What’s the point of collecting age verification at the operating system level if the installed programs don’t ask for it? Is it likely that ssh, Microsoft excel, emacs, photoshop are going to ask the operating system for the user’s age?

Nope. Not any computer I own.

They do realize that linux users could just use a foreign mirror right?

I am so f&cking done with this.

The laws as written are basically unenforceable. The main point of them is to shift the burden of age verification checks off of websites and on to OS providers. And the main point of the age verification stuff was to shift the public discussion around how manipulative social media “suggested” or “for you” algorithms cook people’s brains when trying to maximize engagement by pretending it’s only a problem for children.

Ultimately though, the failure to actually enforce these laws, and the failure to address the obvious issue will just lead to continued anger and another public call for regulation against brain cooking business practices at big tech companies.

Will it be possible to crack it or use a fake ID or something?

Not MY computer of course. Or any of my friends if they want help.

Id sooner go live in the woods.