Linux is Getting a Free Pass on Age Verification in California and Colorado
Linux is Getting a Free Pass on Age Verification in California and Colorado
https://itsfoss.com/news/age-verification-open-source-exemptions/
Publish Date: 2026-05-26 07:54:00
Source Domain: itsfoss.com
Age verification laws have been spreading fast, and we have been keeping tabs on them for a while now. California’s Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) was the first to land, signed in October 2025, with Colorado following with its own version (SB26-051).
Neither made any concessions for open source software in the original language, which left Linux distributions and other community-run projects in a very uncomfortable dilemma.
Both have since moved to fix that, with Colorado having wrapped it up earlier this month and California heading for a full Assembly vote.
What’s California doing?
Look at the blue bits.
AB 1043 required OS providers to collect a user’s age or birth date at account setup and share it with apps through a real-time API, starting January 1, 2027. Open Source projects got no special treatment in the original text, which is something we wrote about when the bills started drawing attention.
Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, who authored AB 1043 herself, introduced AB 1856 in February to address that.
After four rounds of revisions, the bill has rewritten the definition of “operating system provider” to exclude anyone distributing an OS under terms that let recipients copy, redistribute, and modify the software.
Most Linux distributions under permissive or copyleft licenses fall cleanly within that.
In tandem, another change covers the application side, where software that is not offered as a standalone executable through a covered app store is no longer treated as an “application” under the law.
The bill passed the Appropriations Committee 11-0 on May 14. It was ordered to third reading on May 19 and is awaiting an assembly vote. Interestingly, Buffy is the chair of that committee.
What about Colorado?
The formatting of this bill document could be better. ☠️
Colorado’s path here involved some direct community legwork. Carl Richell, the founder of System76, spent some considerable time working with Senator Matt Ball, one…
