California Exempts Open-Source Software from Age Verification

California lawmakers have approved a new bill that exempts open-source operating systems, such as Linux, from the state's stringent age verification requirements. Assembly Bill 1856 amends the earlier Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA), which mandates operating system providers to verify user age during account setup.

The original DAAA law, set to take effect January 1, 2027, required OS providers to collect user birth dates or ages and signal this information to applications via an API. This posed significant challenges for open-source projects like Linux, where responsibility for software distribution and maintenance is decentralized, making it difficult to pinpoint a single accountable entity.

AB 1856 clarifies that an operating system provider is not a person or entity distributing an OS or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software. This exemption is expected to cover popular Linux distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch Linux, whose licensing terms align with the new law's criteria.

An earlier draft of the law would have extended age verification duties to web browsers and website operators, but this language was removed before final passage. The new legislation leaves open questions regarding how applications will handle situations where an exempted OS does not provide an age signal and whether Linux package managers will be considered app stores.