Freedesktop Closes Controversial Age Verification API Proposal

11 hours ago

Linux community debates new U.S. legislation (e.g., California’s AB-1043, Colorado’s SB26-051) requiring stricter age verification for online services.
A merge request proposed adding a D-Bus interface (org.freedesktop.AgeVerification) to XDG specs, allowing apps to query user age brackets (e.g., Under 13, 13–15, 16–17, 18+).
User birth year would be stored locally in AccountsService, with only age brackets accessible to apps via methods like GetAgeBracket.
Proposal faced criticism over privacy, jurisdiction-specific policies in desktop infrastructure, and reputational risks for freedesktop.
Merge request was closed; future work may shift to portal infrastructure (e.g., Flatpak), but no clear solution exists yet for Linux’s response to age verification.

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