US states including California, Colorado, and New York are advancing bills that would require device manufacturers and OS vendors to implement age verification APIs, exposing users' age categories to websites and apps in real time. Community response is overwhelmingly negative (99% opposed in a poll of ~3,000 votes). Key concerns include government overreach, erosion of online anonymity, verification creep toward full digital ID, incompatibility with open-source and GPL principles, unenforceability on Linux/BSD/embedded/IoT systems, disproportionate impact on volunteer-driven projects, and the argument that parental controls already exist. Critics also warn that once age-verification infrastructure is built into OSes, reversing the shift from neutral computing tools to compliance instruments will be extremely difficult.
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