Age checks creep into Linux as systemd gets a DOB field

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Powderhorn@beehaw.org⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/24/foss_age_verification/

Just what I want in my distro.

After weeks of debate, code to record user age was finally merged into the Linux world’s favorite system management daemon.

Pull request #40954 to the systemd project is titled “userdb: add birthDate field to JSON user records.” It’s a new function for the existing userdb service, which adds a field to hold the user’s date of birth:

Stores the user’s birth date for age verification, as required by recent laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc.

The contents of the field will be protected from modification except by users with root privileges.

The change comes after the recent release of systemd 260 but unless it is reverted for some reason, it will be part of systemd 261. One of the justifications is to facilitate the new parental controls in Flatpak, which are still in the draft stage.

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Comments

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TehPers@beehaw.org ⁨44⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
Don’t worry. This will all get reverted real quick once it makes its way into a user prompt for headless installations. Imagine needing to pass a DOB in through stdin somehow every time you docker run ubuntu lol.

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Midnitte@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Literally fucking pointless

The contents of the field will be protected from modification except by users with root privileges.

Fucking nannystate bullshit.

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orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
This was my reply in another thread about this bullshit:

“It’s just a harmless field; what’s the big deal?”

The big deal is that it’s on the heels of age verification bullshit that fascists are pushing through with the help of tech bros, so that they can eventually push all of us into a scenario where we have zero privacy.

It’s not the adding of the field itself or the fact that it can be filled with nonsense. It’s the reasoning backing it.

“But it’s the law!”

Yeah, fucking and…? It’s a stupid mass surveillance law disguised as a protection, and per usual, it’s written like vague dog shit. This is the smallest part of the wedge. More will come of this and if developers like this keep volunteering themselves to help the fascists, we will all be fucked. Here’s an alternative approach: just don’t add this. You can fight back by not fucking implementing this. Easy.

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xyro@morbier.foo ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
And the same contributor (linked to Microsoft) submitted a PR on Arch to make that field mandatory … Definitely not sus

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guynamedzero@piefed.zeromedia.vip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
When the time comes, I’ll make a script/systemd service that will periodically change the DoB field to a random value, so it’s effectively useless as it changes every few hours/minutes/(whatever I decide). If there’s enough interest, I’ll share it with everyone else on piefed/lemmy

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- UnhingedStopa@sopuli.xyz ⁨23⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  They will force you to verify it using your government info somehow after they “notice” it isn’t working “as expected”.
  
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sexy_animal_fucker@kbin.melroy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The annoying people telling us not to use systemd were right all along

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- excel@lemming.megumin.org ⁨14⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  No
  
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Penguincoder@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m gonna sound like Prof Snape here, but Goddamnit Poettering!

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