Of course, this is not only about Ubuntu, Fedora, or Linux Mint, as it would apply to all GNU/Linux distributions, desktop environments, and application hubs lke Flathub or Snap Store, which will have to comply with the upcoming law in the near future in some way, especially since similar laws have already been proposed in other US states, including New York and Colorado.
Hard disagree, If it doesn’t matter how one uses a computer, then why would one have to comply with the state’s requirement to specify who is using a computer? In this case, the state is regulating the way a minor uses a computer and plans to enforce it with legal action including severe monetary fines.
Do you know how digital fingerprinting with metadata works? This information, even just Age brackets will be very helpful to accomplish this.
In respect to everything else, which I appreciate you taking the time to type, it’s important to remember how legal precedent works, how laws are interpreted, and how legal overreach happens.
These two statements are in conflict and cannot both be true.
This is the same cat and mouse game that has always existed in prohibited material. There will always be loopholes and sometimes those loopholes will expose users to increased risk.
Note, I haven’t even gotten to the fact that not only computers use Linux. Some refrigerators might use it to run it’s “smart” features. And refrigerators might store alcohol.
This is not doing that. It is poorly protecting the distubitors of “harmful content”. Likely, this will only benefit large companies like Meta. If your goal as a parent is to restrict porn websites, some firewall rules would do a better job, and even that is doomed to failure as you won’t be able to add all porn websites. A combination of education, an honest talk with your child, and the realization that abstinence/prohibition does not work would be a better approach than any technical one.
And what if a website or app doesn’t check this or add a nudity flag for the device/browser to check? Do you think porn sites in other countries will care?
For this:
They are not in conflict, because the onus is on the parents to set up a child’s account. So if the parent did their job, then the child can never click “I am over 21” because at the OS level it’s blocked. They would need their parent to bypass that again. For adults, on your device, you simply never set up a child’s account, and you don’t need to worry about it. So yes, I consider that closed. A child loses the ability to click “I’m over 21”. Adults if anything hopefully don’t have to click that anymore, but I’m guessing for safety they’ll still force us to tick the box.
So far this isn’t for the web at all, but I see this as clearing up the grey areas. Maybe they don’t care, maybe they do. Maybe it puts more power on the browser to help stop it. If a website or app does not listen to it there are consequences for it, but seeing how it’s quite literally a boolean check it sounds pretty easy to be in compliance. That’s the monetary damages we saw above.
I don’t know man, I see this, which is a simple thing a parent can set on an account: are they a child or not. Or, the alternative, which is everyone has to upload their government ID to some third party site, have it stored for all of eternity, and collated and collected, just so they can access discord, or social media, or whatever. The thing is that I do not believe there exists governments right now who are willing to let any of it slide anymore, they are demanding that something be done. Nothing is no longer an option. If we have to choose one of the options, (and by not choosing it means they will choose for you), this seems like the safest most privacy focused option.
We will never agree on this since your whole premise is built on a lie.
You are claiming that it’s inevitable for the state to govern how we use our devices. When the realty is, that the state does not need to be involved at the operating system level.
If this was actually about protecting kids, then maybe the state should go after tech companies like xAI which hosts a child pornography generator known as Grok.
This is not about that, this is actually a law that will protect xAI, and allow them to continue to generate non consensual pornography including those of children.
If a child sees harmful material like child pornography that xAI generates, somehow that is now the operating system developer’s fault. And it’s not impossible to imagine in a few years the parents would also be legally liable.
Okay calling it a lie is a harsh term, and I thought we were coming to at least a mutual understanding of each other’s points.
I do not disagree with you, that it shouldn’t be them getting involved. However, what is happening is that they are getting involved whether we like it or not. This is the fundamental difference in our viewpoints. If you think there is still a chance to hold out, go for it, but I think there is no way to avoid it at this point.
I see it very clearly. That it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. I personally think if all the OSes just held out and said “No way we’re not doing anything” then the obvious response is that sites will need to require IDs for everything, and we lost even harder. It’s better to suggest a tech forward privacy based approach now rather than let them dictate that everyone should take IDs.
That’s my point of view. I know you disagree, and we’re not going to come to an agreement, so I don’t see the need to continue this thread.