On the unfortunate need for an "age verification" API for legal compliance reasons in some U.S. states

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

On 3/2/26 08:08, Stephan Verbücheln wrote:
> When I install the Debian standard desktop, it already asks me whether
> each newly created user should have parental restrictions. I assume
> that there are APIs for the apps to follow this categorization.
> 
> I assume KDE and others have similar options.
> 
> I am aware that many existing apps do not follow this setting (yet),
> and many apps will never follow it because they do not care or do not
> really display age-relevant content to users to begin with.
> 
> So what would be the required step to make this existing API
> conforming?
> 
> 1. Implement the categories (13/16/18/etc.).
> 2. Hope that other jurisdictions do not choose different age numbers.

Of course other countries use other age groups. E.g. for games the 
relevant age groups in Germany are 0+, 6+, 12+, 16+, and 18+.

Please, consider that computers are taken on travel and the jurisdiction 
of the current location needs to be observed.

Best regards

Heinrich

> 3. Make default apps follow the parental controls.
> 4. Make web browsers translate the user's age class to appropriate HTTP
> headers.
> 
> I do not think this is a risk for user freedom. People who do not have
> kids on their computers can completely ignore the parental settings.
> 
> Also I do not think that the law is applying to existing operating
> system releases. Regulations like this usually apply only to products
> released after the date. By this logic, it might apply to Debian 14.
> 
> I also do not believe that this applies do software projects directly.
> Usually, these things apply to device manufacturers who ship devices,
> e.g. Lenovo laptops sold with preinstalled Ubuntu.