I’ve only absorbed bits and pieces of the story, but allegedly there’s an age verification push happening on Linux? What’s the full story here?

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    481·
    17 hours ago

    An optional field was added to the userdb to allow storing birthdate. That’s it.

    The systemd project merged a pull request adding a new birthDate field to the JSON user records managed by userdb in response to the age verification laws of California, Colorado, and Brazil.

    This is the same record that already holds basic user metadata like realName, emailAddress, and location. The field stores a full date in YYYY-MM-DD format and can only be set by administrators, not by users themselves.

    An optional field in the userdb JSON object. It’s not a policy engine, not an API for apps. We just define the field, so that it’s standardized iff [sic] people want to store the date there, but it’s entirely optional.

    –Lennart Poettering

    https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/

    • Matt The Horwood@lemmy.horwood.cloudEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      As long as I dont need to install a GUI on all my headless servers I couldn’t give 2 hoots, also while I’m at it. As long as I dont need to workout how I get a GUI on an Aws instance that is headless

        • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialEnglish
          193·
          16 hours ago

          There’s ample evidence there is an organised international push for these mass surveillance efforts in many countries all at once, do you deny this?

          • ozymandias117@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            14 hours ago

            I would argue, for now, this is malicious compliance from the open source community.

            Adding an optional field in the UserDB to store an age covers the requirements of the law, without trying to help with the spirit of the law

            But I do understand the boiling the frog side

          • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
            2·
            11 hours ago

            Assuming some jurisdictions implement some kind of device based age restrictions, should linux just not exist in those places?

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
      151·
      16 hours ago

      iff [sic]

      In case you are unaware, “iff” is short for “if and only if”, i.e. bidirectional implication. It’s not a typo.

      • kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        61·
        15 hours ago

        It is a word, but I don’t think it’s really applicable here. The standard exists even if no one wants to use it or ever does.

      • The_Decryptor@aussie.zoneEnglish
        5·
        9 hours ago

        iff = “if and only if”

        Basically saying the field’s there if you need to comply with the law, but otherwise you don’t need to use it, just like the other fields.

    • Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de
      34·
      16 hours ago

      Exactly, making it possible for admins (parents) to set up systems with rules based on age for their many children

      • youcantreadthis@quokk.auEnglish
        6·
        16 hours ago

        They can install some parental controls from the package manager. This doesnot need to be in fucking systemd.