this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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It is not always the case today. For instance you can now use Linux on your computer with a local account called myaccount, not tied to your identity in any way. That, by the way, used to be the case with Windows too, until Microsoft killed local accounts not too long ago.
In an age-verification world, if a Linux distro wants to do age verification, you would have to connect to a third party that can certify your age somehow; I haven't read enough on this to know for sure, but I can't think of a way to do it without telling that third party who you are, uploading your id or similar privacy-unfriendly things.
Now, that third party has acquired a power on your ability to use your device that they don't have today.
Then your OS will have to store you age (and hopefully only that) and share it with any of the installed apps that need to verify it, which opens its own can of worms