Oh No! Now A Federal Bill Wants OS-Level Age Verification for Everyone in the USA

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

https://itsfoss.com/news/os-level-age-verification-across-us/

The U.S. has been quietly building up a set of state-level laws that push operating system providers into the age verification plague.

California’s AB 1043, signed in October 2025, requires OS providers to collect age data at account setup and pipe it to apps through a real-time API. It kicks in on January 1, 2027.

Colorado is working on something nearly identical. SB26-051 (which we covered when it was still a proposal) passed the state Senate 28-7 on March 3, 2026, and is now waiting on a House vote to become law there too.

However, these are just state-level laws. A new federal bill, H.R.8250, introduced on April 13, 2026, by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, with Rep. Elise M. Stefanik signing on as cosponsor, has us intrigued.

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Comments

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unitedwithme@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
My other biggest gripe: what happens to business computer users at the office? What about their admins? How much extra work is this going to create???

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- nymnympseudonym@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  No worries, all this IT stuff is going away with the banning of VPNs
  
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- Prove_your_argument@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Enterprise and SMB always have practical workarounds that consumers do not need to deal with.
  
  The only way to create a local user account on windows 11 now without fuckery is pretending you are going to domain join. No other method exists without under the hood tweaks. A similar workaround would work.
  
  But none of this actually protects kids. The goal is to have total surveillance over as many users as possible in their home life. Enterprise is already handled by m365 and google workspace after all.
  
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  - Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    The only way to create a local user account on windows 11 now without fuckery is pretending you are going to domain join. No other method exists without under the hood tweaks. A similar workaround would work.
    
    Depending on your definition of “under the hood”, this isn’t really accurate. You can invoke CMD to create an account or enter Audit mode to do the same. Neither of these methods require preparation of separate installation media.
    
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  - PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Can’t you only join a domain on the Pro versions of Windows, too?
    
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  - unitedwithme@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Ohhh trust me I know it’s all about surveillance. I’m just meaning they’re going to negatively impact everyone everywhere without a second thought because they’ll get what they want in the end. Either more money or more reelections
    
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  - Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    But I don’t use windows 11, still using a local account just fine.
    
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IllNess@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
This basically makes using VPNs for privacy useless. Now they will have a record of every IP address you ever used. They can also use local laws internationally. Like if your state has age verification or bans certain sites, they can just use your ID to ban those websites or apps even if you aren’t in the country.

This is horribly bad…

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- Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Can someone ELI5 this for me please? I’m clearly not getting what’s going on
  
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  - IllNess@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    This bill, if passed, will force operating systems to verify the age of the user. This means the verification uses a government issued ID.
    
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  - t3rmit3@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    State-level bills have heretofore only required OSes to ask a user if they are of majority age. A federal bill is likely (based on the groups backing and who proposed it) to require OSes to validate (i.e. have users prove, not just assert) their ages.
    
    Depending on what mechanisms are mandated, and who they target punishment at, it could lock 99% of users (who are not willing or capable to use means to bypass this) into tying all their actions online to a government-run database.
    
    It’s not enough that means to bypass it exist; the government shouldn’t be able to mandate this kind of control, and shouldn’t be propagating the expectation that this behavior and level of control is normal or acceptable.
    
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  - AntiBullyRanger@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Nazis want total control of all systems, so they created this bait law to make your use of computers illegal.
    
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Malyca@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Palantir wants*

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- Fifrok@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I would have guessed Meta, Zuckerberg paid the most to get the bill in California passed.
  
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