What is Linux Mint's stance on age verification laws from several states? And systemd.

[feral hawk]

Several states like California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and the country of Brazil have implemented laws to make the Operating System collect the age of the user account and broadcast it to every app, app store and service and possibly website they use.

Ubuntu plans to comply. What is Linux Mint's stance on these laws? Will any age verification updates from Ubuntu be rejected (like snap) or will it be implemented?

Also given that systemd has started to store user birthdate, does Linux Mint plan on abandoning systemd? Or make Devuan based Linux Mint?

UPDATE: I now know mint is unaffected by systemd storing user birthdate because systemd-userdbd does not come pre installed in mint

[fossil star]

no official answer is provide by mint team

[thorn herald]

I have not seen anything official, but I have seen most distros are saying they will not actively add but they also will not actively remove anything related. Several will for sure be adding it and most are saying they won't intentionally add it but if it is added by the base distro they will not remove it

[thorn herald]

This link is a little useful, I'm not sure how well it is updated. But Ubuntu and Debian are both in the compliance section and Debian specifically said they plan to help downstream distros (and in some cases force unless items are specifically removed).

https://github.com/BryanLunduke/DoesItAgeVerify?tab=readme-ov-file

[deep lintel]

Mint knows its place imo. If they implement it, they are aware that they will lose a good chunk of their userbase, not to mention the work and maintenance required to actually implementing a UI, backend and other shit for that. The team is too small.

They had the balls to reject snap, they will reject this bullshit too

[solid dock]

Ubuntu isn't planning on much, not sure where Lunduke got his info

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntus-response-to-californias-digital-age-assurance-act-ab-1043/77948

[thorn herald]

Ubuntu is not wanting to do the work, does not mean they will not happily accept the compliance framework provided by Debian or other sources.

Also, you are heavily missing the point of the post you shared - it states they are waiting legal counsel before making their own selection. It says nothing about their willingness to comply nor does it state they will not comply if the framework is provided from other teams (such as Debian devs)

[solid dock]

As I stated in my previous post, Canonical is still working this out with its legal department.

While I appreciate your point of view, and why you might be alarmed by the apparent direction - none of that work in the installer/systemd/etc. has been done by Canonical - it’s been done by an external contributor, and we have no intention of considering implementations until we’ve had a chance to consider our actual policy on how or if we respond to the legislation.

Been well over a month since the same person posted that

[thorn herald]

Done by and embraced by, not the same but ends the same. Compliance is almost guaranteed by Canonical. Deny all you want, does not change reality

[thorn herald]

You publish your age? I can honestly say that half the data about me found online is incorrect... (And my date of birth is usually spread across multiple ages)

[quasi locust]

Here's my thoughts on it. In Europe they are planning age verification through an app on our phones. which includes scanning an ID to set it up. I wouldn't mind an age field in the user details of a linux operating system. It is not as invasive as scanning an ID. And it creates a hurdle to overcome for those who want to pretend that they are underage. It does protect the children in a way. But at what cost.

[deep lintel]

They excuse their invasive surveillance shit as "we're protecting the children". Like yeah, as if a kid can't just use their parents' ID or perhaps a fake/stolen one or VPN their way to a country that doesn't implement that and still get access.