Linux devs are fighting the new age-gated internet

Colorado’s proposed age-verification law would have required operating systems to collect users’ ages and share them with app developers.

After lobbying by System76 founder Carl Richell, the final Colorado bill exempted open-source systems such as Linux.

The debate highlights how age-gating rules designed for commercial platforms could be hard for volunteer-driven open-source projects to implement.

Similar laws, including California’s AB 1043, are still advancing and could pressure privacy-preserving operating systems like Pop!_OS.