Re: California law CA AB1043

In message <[email protected]>, Mark Millard 
write
s:
> On 2/26/26 07:12, Lucas Holt wrote:
> > California is requiring age verification checks for account creation at
> > the OS level with a signal API to provide information to applications in
> > 2027.  They explicitly call out individual developers or companies with
> > fines of 2500 dollars per child affected.
> > 
> > I wondered if anyone has started looking into this on the FreeBSD side. 
> > The way I read this, we would need to implement changes when creating
> > accounts, provide a mechanism to check from apps (library), and provide
> > support within package managers to filter apps?  Then browsers would
> > need to implement this and call the respective OS APIs for age
> > verification for desktop use.
> > 
> > It seems like it makes sense for multiple *NIX systems to implement a
> > similar mechanism across platforms.
> > 
> > The paragraph near the bottom seems to indicate that it wouldn't apply
> > to server use since indirect signals aren't required to be honored.
> > 
> > For reference:
> > 
> > https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1043/id/3269704
> > 
>
> Hmm. 1798.500(e)(1) [and (2)] would appear to make port-package
> distribution of "Application" (but plural) a "Covered application
> store". At the moment I do not see how the FreeBSD port-package
> distribution mechanism would fit into this in its current form. It would
> seem to require accounts to be involved for all "Account holder" (but
> plural), for example. The "operating system provider" has to require
> account setup to indicate age information for the "user" (such as a
> child) and has to provide secure access to the information "when the
> application is downloaded and launched".

Before jumping to any conclusions I think we ought to look at what 
companies like Red Hat and Canonical are doing in this space.

>
> Since the FreeBSD OS includes applications and the means to download
> optional applications that are also part of the OS, there may be similar
> issues for it (relative to itself) as far as I an tell.
>
> The title does not apply to:
>
> ) broadband internet access service (Section 3100)
> ) telecommunication service (Section 153 of Title 4 of the US code)
> ) Delivery or use of a physical product
>
> But I doubt that such applies.
>
> There are time constraints that I'll not get into but would seem to be a
> problem.
>
> -- 
> ===
> Mark Millard
> marklmi at yahoo.com
>


-- 
Cheers,
Cy Schubert <[email protected]>
FreeBSD UNIX:  <[email protected]>   Web:  https://FreeBSD.org
NTP:           <[email protected]>    Web:  https://nwtime.org

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