California moves to exempt Linux from its age-verification law after backlash
Recorded: May 26, 2026, 1:15 p.m.
| Original | Summarized |
California moves to exempt Linux from its upcoming age-verification law after backlash over forcing operating systems to collect users’ ages — amendment proposed by the same lawmaker who wrote the original law | Tom's Hardware
Skip to main content Unlock world-class roadmaps & trusted Bench data. × ✓Full access to our trusted Bench database: Subscribe to our annual plan for just $29 Open menu Tom's Hardware US Edition UK US Australia Canada RSS Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search Tom's Hardware Best Picks CPU Buying Advice CPU Best Picks CPU Reviews
GPU Buying Advice GPU Best Picks GPU Reviews
Laptop Buying Advice Laptop Best Picks Laptop Reviews
More Buying Advice Keyboard Best Picks Gaming Monitor Best Picks Gaming Headset Best Picks 3D Printer Best Picks Webcam Best Picks Mice Best Picks How We Test CPUs CPU Brands AMD Ryzen Intel Lunar Lake Nvidia Qualcomm Apple Benchmarking
Platforms X86 ARM Panther Lake Zen 5 AM5
Chipmaking DUV EUV Rare Earth Metals GPUs GPU Brands Nvidia Blackwell Nvidia Geforce AMD Radeon Intel Arc Snapdragon X Benchmarking
Memory Tech GDDR7 GDDR8 HBM
AI Architecture Nvidia Vera Rubin Meta MTIA Google TPU AMD Instinct Microsoft Maia
Drivers
PC Components Memory RAM DRAM DDR5
Storage HDDs SSDs
Cooling Air Cooling Liquid Cooling Thermal Paste
Networking Routers
Motherboards Overclocking PC Cases PC Building Power Supplies
News Tech Industry News CPU News GPU News Chips Act Semiconductors Cybersecurity Supercomputers Quantum Computing
Company News AMD Intel Nvidia Radeon Microsoft TSMC Ryzen IBM
Newsletter
Laptops Gaming Laptops Ultrabooks MacBooks Laptop Brands Asus Razer HP MSI Desktops PC Building PC Cases
Gaming PCs Monitors Gaming Monitors
Peripherals Keyboards Mice 3D Printers Headphones
Desktop Brands Alienware Corsair GeForce Intel Arc Gigabyte Acer Software & AI Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning R&D Intel Gaudi Cerebras xAI
LLMs OpenAI Anthropic DeepSeek Gemini Grok
Operating Systems Windows MacOS iOS ChromeOS Linux
Software Programming Applications Microsoft Office Web Browsers Coupons Laptop and PC Coupons Dell Coupon Codes Asus Coupon Codes Logitech Promo Codes Samsung Promo codes
Hardware Coupons Newegg Promo Codes Corsair Discount Codes Razer Promo Codes Anycubic Discount codes
Software Coupons Bitdefender Coupons Simplisafe Coupons MacPaw Coupons Squarespace Coupon Codes
Gaming Coupons Kinguin Discount Codes Loaded Discount Codes Logitech G Promo Codes SteelSeries Coupons More
Premium home Best Picks View Best Picks CPU Buying Advice CPU Best Picks CPU Reviews
GPU Buying Advice GPU Best Picks GPU Reviews
Laptop Buying Advice Laptop Best Picks Laptop Reviews
More Buying Advice Keyboard Best Picks Gaming Monitor Best Picks Gaming Headset Best Picks 3D Printer Best Picks Webcam Best Picks Mice Best Picks How We Test
CPUs View CPUs CPU Brands AMD Ryzen Intel Lunar Lake Nvidia Qualcomm Apple Benchmarking
Platforms X86 ARM Panther Lake Zen 5 AM5
Chipmaking View Chipmaking DUV EUV Rare Earth Metals
GPUs View GPUs GPU Brands Nvidia Blackwell Nvidia Geforce AMD Radeon Intel Arc Snapdragon X Benchmarking
Memory Tech GDDR7 GDDR8 HBM
AI Architecture Nvidia Vera Rubin Meta MTIA Google TPU AMD Instinct Microsoft Maia
Drivers
PC Components View PC Components Memory RAM DRAM DDR5
Storage View Storage HDDs SSDs
Cooling View Cooling Air Cooling Liquid Cooling Thermal Paste
Networking View Networking Routers
Motherboards Overclocking PC Cases PC Building Power Supplies
News View News Tech Industry News View Tech Industry News CPU News GPU News Chips Act Semiconductors Cybersecurity Supercomputers Quantum Computing
Company News AMD Intel Nvidia Radeon Microsoft TSMC Ryzen IBM
Newsletter
Laptops View Laptops Gaming Laptops Ultrabooks MacBooks Laptop Brands Asus Razer HP MSI
Desktops View Desktops PC Building View PC Building PC Cases
Gaming PCs Monitors View Monitors Gaming Monitors
Peripherals View Peripherals Keyboards Mice 3D Printers Headphones
Desktop Brands Alienware Corsair GeForce Intel Arc Gigabyte Acer
Software & AI View Software & AI Artificial Intelligence View Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning R&D Intel Gaudi Cerebras xAI
LLMs View LLMs OpenAI Anthropic DeepSeek Gemini Grok
Operating Systems View Operating Systems Windows MacOS iOS ChromeOS Linux
Software View Software Programming Applications Microsoft Office Web Browsers
Coupons View Coupons Laptop and PC Coupons View Laptop and PC Coupons Dell Coupon Codes Asus Coupon Codes Logitech Promo Codes Samsung Promo codes
Hardware Coupons View Hardware Coupons Newegg Promo Codes Corsair Discount Codes Razer Promo Codes Anycubic Discount codes
Software Coupons View Software Coupons Bitdefender Coupons Simplisafe Coupons MacPaw Coupons Squarespace Coupon Codes
Gaming Coupons View Gaming Coupons Kinguin Discount Codes Loaded Discount Codes Logitech G Promo Codes SteelSeries Coupons
Premium Tom's Hardware SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Get deeper insights with deeper News Analysis postsRead exclusive subscriber-only features and interviewsUnlock access to Bench, our custom benchmark test visualizer, and compare products From$7/mthSubscribe now Tom's Hardware Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed An account already exists for this email address, please log in. TrendingMemorial Day SalesRAM ShortageIntel Xeon 600TH Premium May PromoRAM Combo DealsDLSS 5Bartlett Lake Software Operating Systems Linux California moves to exempt Linux from its upcoming age-verification law after backlash over forcing operating systems to collect users’ ages — amendment proposed by the same lawmaker who wrote the original law News By published 25 May 2026 SteamOS could still be affected When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Getty Images) Copy link X Share this article 21 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter California lawmakers may be backing away from a controversial age-verification requirement bill that alarmed Linux and open-source developers earlier this year, after a new amendment bill proposed exempting most open-source operating systems from the state’s upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act. In practice, that would likely exempt most mainstream Linux distributions — including Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Mint — from compliance requirements scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027.Assembly Bill 1856 (AB 1856), currently moving through California’s legislature ahead of committee reviews in June, would amend the state’s earlier age-assurance law by excluding software distributed under licenses that allow users to “copy, redistribute, and modify the software.”The proposed amendment specifically states: “Operating system provider” does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.Latest Videos From You may like California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including Linux and SteamOS — user age verified during OS account setup GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems Utah first state to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs The amendment follows months of backlash after California passed the original Assembly Bill 1043 (AB 1043), formally known as the Digital Age Assurance Act, in late 2025. The law sought to shift online age verification away from individual websites and apps and down to the operating-system level instead.Under the original law, operating systems would be required to request a user’s age or birth date during device setup, then expose an “age bracket signal” to apps and app stores. The law, which defined brackets such as “under 13,” “13–15,” “16–17,” and “18+,” immediately raised questions about how such requirements would apply to decentralized, open-source software ecosystems.Unlike Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, most Linux distributions are not centrally controlled commercial platforms. Many are community-run projects maintained by volunteers, often without user accounts, telemetry systems, or even formal corporate ownership structures. Critics argued the law’s wording was so broad that it could technically force open-source operating systems to become age-verification platforms.Privacy advocates, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized the legislation as invasive and warned it could create infrastructure for broader identity tracking online. Linux developers also questioned how California could realistically enforce such requirements on infinitely forkable open-source software projects.Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware NewsletterGet Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.The controversy became particularly heated after reports suggested platforms like SteamOS could still fall under the law due to their ties to proprietary application ecosystems. Valve’s Linux-based gaming platform ships with the proprietary Steam storefront and client, potentially placing it closer to Apple’s App Store or Google Play from a regulatory standpoint.AB 1856 does not repeal the original Digital Age Assurance Act. Instead, it narrows the definition of who qualifies as an “operating system provider” under the law. Commercial platforms with proprietary app ecosystems could remain subject to California’s age-assurance requirements even if most open-source Linux distributions are ultimately exempted.California Assembly Member Buffy Wicks introduced the amendment on February 11, 2026. However, the open-source exemption language appeared in later revisions that began drawing attention across Linux and privacy communities. The latest version is dated May 18, 2026, and as of May 19, 2026, the bill was read a second time and ordered to third reading. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. TOPICS Steam SteamOS See all comments (21) Etiido UkoSocial Links NavigationNews ContributorEtiido Uko is a news contributor for Tom's Hardware covering the latest updates in big tech and the PC industry. He is a mechanical engineer and senior technical writer with over nine years of experience in documentation and reporting. He is deeply passionate about all things engineering and technology, and is an expert in gadgets, manufacturing, robotics, automotive, and aerospace. Read more Operating Systems
VPN
Linux
VPN
3D Printing
Linux
Latest in Linux Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux
Linux
Latest in News Tech Industry
Artificial Intelligence
Cybersecurity
Console Gaming
GPUs
PC Gaming
21 Comments Comment from the forums Notton 1798.500. For the purposes of this title: Reply Sam Hobbs Young people will be more likely to learn Linux. Would Linux executing in a VM in Windows also be exempt? What about WSL? I do not know if Apple still gives Apple computers to schools but I think they did in the past. I think the idea is that if they learn Apple in school then they are more likely to use Apple for the rest of their lives. If young people learn Linux then that is likely to increase the popularity of Linux. Reply Terry Lambert The state of California needs to provide an API, which can be called against the state database, in order to determine the age of the person using the computer. How they do this, is of course up to them, but I would suggest a restful API, utilizing a credential, which can be verified internationally for every human being on earth. Again, how they established this credential in the first place, and the session token associated with that credential, is up to them. I have no problem calling their API. As long as they are the ones responsible for the API, and I am not the one responsible for the API. If they want the cat belled, then they can bell the cat. I am perfectly happy to listen for the bell, once the state of California has created and attach the bell to every person on earth. Dibs on serial number 000–0 00–0 0–0667. Reply ravewulf Sam Hobbs said:Would Linux executing in a VM in Windows also be exempt? What about WSL?Running in a VM or WSL would have no impact as they're still separate OS installations/environments. It would apply to Windows but not the virtualized Linux distro. Reply Ogotai age verification is 100% pointless and useless unless it can be verified by some other means, as whats stopping a 17 year old, from putting his real birth date and month, but putting 1993 as is birth year when its really 2009 ? hell on one site.. i put own birth year as 1925.. and it still let me continue... this whole thing is pointless and a waste of time.... Reply xiq I wonder if Microsoft or Apple would make some sort of "open source" versions of their operating systems to avoid the law. Don't know why they would do that but it's an interesting situation. Reply ezst036 Admin said:California lawmakers introduced a new amendment that could exempt most Linux distributions from the state’s upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act after privacy backlash and concerns that the law would force open-source operating systems to become age-verification platforms.Awesome. Linux is not DoxxOS, it should not be forced by law into becoming DoxxOS. This age verification nonsense being embedded into operating systems by law is the biggest story in years, it is so bizarre to go to web sites like Tom's Hardware on a regular basis and the amount of nothingness here, it's like a black hole. It's not like this age verification nonsense is just a Linux issue. It will affect Mac, Android, and also Windows. It is at times very frustrating the stories that journalists all decide in unison that they will actively refuse to get curious about and report about. In unison. How do journalists all magically decide to omit the same information? How are they doing that? I know for 100% certain that it's not actually a conspiracy but by golly it feels all the same as if there is one. If there was a conspiracy between all of the news websites what the heck would be the difference of the end result of what we actually have now? Yeah; journalists; really kind of useless. Reply usertests xiq said:I wonder if Microsoft or Apple would make some sort of "open source" versions of their operating systems to avoid the law. Don't know why they would do that but it's an interesting situation.Let's see if Windows puts it in the IoT version. Reply TheWerewolf And so this bad idea starts to unravel. Why is ok for open source operating systems to not verify the age of their users and yet Windows and MacOS have to? Basically, this has two effects: unfair competition by making Linux the go to OS for kids to watch porn or adult content on (no, but that is what they claim this act is supposed to stop), and inconsistent application of the law, which just opens the door for Microsoft and Apple to take challenge the law to the Supreme Court and ask that it be quashed on the grounds that it's unfairly discriminatory (laws cannot be drafted in a way to single out entities who aren't themselves breaking the law). Also, as others have pointed out, what if you installed Linux on MacOS or Windows? That makes bypassing the age restrictions on the computer trivial. Yes, the user is under age. They install VirtualBox and Linux and voila - instant bypass. As always, when non-technical people draft laws that "regulate" tech, it ends up being a disaster because they do not understand the thing they are legislating against. Reply TheWerewolf ezst036 said:How do journalists all magically decide to omit the same information? How are they doing that? I know for 100% certain that it's not actually a conspiracy but by golly it feels all the same as if there is one. If there was a conspiracy between all of the news websites what the heck would be the difference of the end result of what we actually have now? Yeah; journalists; really kind of useless.You're making a primary error: that the people writing for tech sites are journalists. In reality, most are not formally trained in journalism and the main goal of these sites is to get you to stick around reading enough copy-inches to see at least one ad. That's why we've drifted from tight, concise, well written news articles to long, first person opinion pieces framed as news (ie: any article like "I tried X and you should to...") and endless faux competition articles that focus on "Which is better?" when "better" is never defined other than "biggest number" (or made by Apple because a LOT of these non-journalists are Apple fanbois). It's not just Tom's Hardware - ALL tech sites are like this now. For those of us who have been around tech since the 1960s - the - I want to say slow erosion, but in reality it happened fairly quickly - from news to advertainment has been very disappointing. Reply View All 21 Comments Show more comments Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Add as a preferred source on Google Terms and conditions Contact Future's experts Privacy policy Cookies policy Accessibility Statement Advertise with us About us Coupons Careers © |
California lawmakers are pursuing an amendment to exempt most open-source operating systems from the state's upcoming Digital Age Assurance Act, which introduced age verification requirements at the operating system level. This effort stems from significant backlash concerning how such requirements would apply to decentralized, open-source software ecosystems, particularly Linux. The original law mandated that operating systems collect user age or birth dates during setup and reveal an age bracket signal to applications. Critics, including privacy advocates and Linux developers, argued that this framework was overly broad and risked forcing open-source operating systems to assume the role of age-verification platforms, raising concerns about privacy and the enforceability of such requirements across infinitely forkable software projects. The proposed amendment, Assembly Bill 1856, seeks to narrow the definition of an "operating system provider" under the original law by excluding entities that distribute software under licenses permitting users to copy, redistribute, and modify the software. This exemption would likely cover mainstream Linux distributions, such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Mint, thereby exempting them from the compliance obligations scheduled for January 1, 2027. Although the amendment does not repeal the original Digital Age Assurance Act, it fundamentally alters the scope of who is subject to the age-assurance rules, distinguishing between community-run open-source projects and commercial platforms. The controversy extends to platforms with proprietary ecosystems, where the distinction becomes more complex. Reports indicated that entities like SteamOS, due to their ties to proprietary application storefronts, might remain subject to age-assurance requirements even if most Linux distributions are exempt. This differentiation implies that commercial operating systems, like those from Apple or Microsoft, retain a potential avenue to apply the law, which has led to arguments regarding unfair competition and inconsistent legal application. Furthermore, external commentary has focused on the potential for technical circumvention, noting that using virtualization or environments like WSL on Windows could allow users to bypass age restrictions on virtualized Linux distributions. The debate also touches upon broader issues regarding the nature of technology regulation and journalism. Concerns have been raised that imposing such stringent, hardware-embedded age verification requirements is fundamentally impractical and that the ensuing public discourse is often overshadowed by political narratives rather than technical realities. Some commentators suggested that the legal approach risks establishing infrastructure for broader identity tracking, and others criticized the journalistic ecosystem for selectively omitting crucial technical information in favor of sensational political content. Ultimately, the situation highlights the tension between state regulation, the principles of open-source freedom, and the technical realities of software distribution and user privacy. |