Having read over many of the related PRs (linked at end of this post), my conclusion is that any attempt to comply with Brazil's Lei 15.211/2025, California's AB-1043, or Colorado's SB26-051 is incredibly misguided and risks running afoul of already existing laws while being impossible to fully comply with (due to poor quality on ex. AB-1043).
Many of these attempts will even be in violation of other state's laws that exist to protect children by collecting/revealing information from/about minors.
dylanmtaylor's PR on archinstall:
github.com/archlinux/archins…
Collecting age during OS install means that this script would then need to (per-jurisdiction) terminate early as many locales forbid enforcement of licenses (like those that are implicitly/explicitly accepted during system installation) by minors. Potentially in violation of privacy/child-safety laws as well if the attempt to create the account is not rejected (in some locales). Excellent example of why trying to comply with every specific country/states laws is impossible as they often conflict with themselves (AB-1043 requires revealing information that if polled daily reveals information if prohibits revealing) or the laws of other jurisdictions.
davidedmundson's PR on xdg-desktop-portal:
github.com/flatpak/xdg-deskt…
This is adequately responded to by two comment from HaplessIdiot (
github.com/flatpak/xdg-deskt… and
github.com/flatpak/xdg-deskt…)
dylanmtaylor's PR on accountservice:
gitlab.freedesktop.org/accou…
Adequately responded to by Jeremy Soller who references his previous comments at
lists.freedesktop.org/archiv… (excellent read as it is one of the more nuanced takes that doesn't take as hardline of a stance as I do), he also raises concerns that this implementation may inadvertently violate the laws it would attempt to comply with due to the ability to read user age data from d-bus.
dylanmtaylor's PR on systemd:
github.com/systemd/systemd/p…
Suffers from the same issue as the pr for accountservice, but in addition is responsible for the actual storage of indirectly identifying PII that, again, may not be legal to store for underage users in some jurisdictions. In short, the attempt at compliance is misguided unless/until the laws are adjudicated to remove conflicting requirements.
If you've made it this far, you can have my actual spicy take on this topic. Your devices are your own and it is the responsibility of parents, not the state, to protect their children; furthermore, it is the moral duty of the people to engage in civil disobedience when government has demonstrated incompetence, malfeasance, and a willingness to violate the restrictions placed upon them.