Re:System76 on Age Verification Laws
by idle_zealot on Friday March 06, 2026 @01:27PM
(#47278988)
> protecting those consumers from the companies writing that software
Of course, but that's exactly the framing of the verification laws. Protecting underage computer users from products/services unsuitable for them. If you want protection to be effective then it needs to be on by default, but also needs to ultimately be controlled by the user, and it's that second part that ID checks and the like fail.
The only laws the government should pass regulating software running on someones computer are laws protecting those consumers from the companies writing that software. For example, anti-malware/anti-spyware.
The government has no business telling a random company that their software needs to report my age, whether it's unverified and self-reported or not.