If passed, the bill would apply across the U.S., unlike the state-level laws already around.
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.
The official title of the bill reads, "To require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system, and for other purposes." But that's a mouthful; the short version is "Parents Decide Act."
If you go by the full title, the bill is pretty self-explanatory; it is going to require every operating system provider to verify the age of its user who wants to use their OS, and vaguely enough, for any "other purposes."
It has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and currently sits at step one (Introduced) of five in the legislative process. No bill text has been published; there's no summary, no subject tags, and no related bills attached to it.
That means right now, the only thing formally known about H.R.8250 is its title, its sponsors, and where it got sent.
Gottheimer's office published a press release on April 2, 2026, announcing the bill 11 days before it was formally introduced. That press release was unavailable for a while, but it is now back up.
According to the announcement, the bill would require OS developers to verify user age at device setup, allow parents to set content controls right there, and have those settings flow through to apps and platforms on the device.
Apple and Google were the companies Gottheimer named as the intended targets, with the framing centered entirely around phones and tablets.
But here's where it gets interesting for anyone outside the Apple and Google ecosystem. Gottheimer's press release framed this entirely around commercial mobile platforms. The official bill title, as you saw earlier, does not.
If the bill text matches the breadth of that title, Linux distributions and other open source operating platforms would sit squarely within its scope. And a federal bill passing would mean one nationwide compliance requirement replacing the current state-by-state situation.
The representative also voiced support for several groups, which include the likes of:
Meta Parents Network
Common Sense Media
FairPlay
Evidently, things are getting more absurd with each passing day, and I can't wait for the day when access to anything electronic is locked behind a gate, guarded by the most decent and righteous upholders of the law. /s