Will FreeBSD be available in California in 2027?

[blackhole]

Meta are trying to avoid this kind of thing:

Meta found in breach of EU law for failing to keep children off platforms

Commission says tech company does not have effective measures to keep under-13s off Facebook and Instagram

www.theguardian.com

The tech company Meta has been found to be in breach of EU law for failing to prevent children under 13 from using its Facebook and Instagram platforms.

Meta will now have the chance to examine the commission’s investigation file and mount a defence. If the finding against the Silicon Valley company is upheld, it could be fined up to 6% of its global annual turnover. Meta reported revenue of $201bn (£148bn) for 2025.

This type of legislation does not really take into account that there are OS's like the 'BSDs and Linux. For the legislators, an OS or a "vendor" or an "app store", is something like MS or Apple or Android, where there is some kind of account registered (not a UNIX user account, but a MS account, or Apple ID), and the account will hold this age verification data for applications and websites to query.

So facing those kind of fines, and what it is already spending on age verification, it's obvious why it's striving to offload this burden to the OS.

 

[sidetone]

What about comparisons to websites about alcoholic drinks? They're required for the user to enter their birthdate to enter those sites. That's all that's required.

Also, when you keep children off of computers, lots of us have been using DOS, TI99/4A, Apple, Windows, and/or other operating systems since we were very young. These were educational tools. Internet was not as available the way it is now, though, so we didn't have access then to what they are now trying to prevent children from seeing online.

 

[astyle]

What about comparisons to websites about alcoholic drinks? They're required for the user to enter their birthdate to enter those sites. That's all that's required.

Also, when you keep children off of computers, lots of us have been using DOS, TI99/4A, Apple, Windows, and/or other operating systems since we were very young. These were educational tools. Internet was not as available the way it is now, though, so we didn't have access then to what they are now trying to prevent children from seeing online.

Most sites for alcoholic drinks only started popping up after y2k, anyway, during the dotcom boom.

This type of legislation does not really take into account that there are OS's like the 'BSDs and Linux. For the legislators, an OS or a "vendor" or an "app store", is something like MS or Apple or Android, where there is some kind of account registered (not a UNIX user account, but a MS account, or Apple ID), and the account will hold this age verification data for applications and websites to query.

which is exactly why the BSD's / Linux are actually safe, and this is just a storm in a teacup, and people have been missing that important point, and making a mountain out of a molehill in the process.

 

[Espionage724]

I wonder if a child with the ability to install an alternate OS would need protection from the stuff the bill covers? Would they have the free time to get sucked-into social media, or be too busy fine-tuning their alternate OS after learning how to do it with a sysadmin interest? (got that far trying to bypass a restriction; why stop there? )

 

[6502]

I wonder if a child with the ability to install an alternate OS would need protection from the stuff the bill covers? Would they have the free time to get sucked-into social media, or be too busy fine-tuning their alternate OS after learning how to do it with a sysadmin interest? (got that far trying to bypass a restriction; why stop there? )

Door lock will not protect you from professional thief but you prefer to lock your door than leaving it unlocked.