There is way too much sensationalism around this law. All this law calls for is an OS-level “Are you over 18?” button, the kind that’s been all over the internet for decades. See the Ubuntu mailing list discussion for a possible technical approach. There does not appear to be any requirement for age verification beyond that of the system administrator, and reporting is by a total of four age brackets, so even the privacy impact is limited.

The benefit of something like this is that age can be enforced by the system administrator rather than the user, so parents can set their kids’ computers with an accurate age bracket. Meanwhile, all of us with just a single user can set the highest age brackets and move on with our lives. Now, as the CEO of System76 says, kids will find ways around it, and we shouldn’t discourage kids from controlling their own computers, but he says “If there is any solace in these two laws, it’s that they don’t have any real restrictions”.

But that same article notes that New York has a proposed bill S8102A that is much more draconian. California’s law is a minor nuisance, while New York’s bill sounds like an outright danger. Please focus on a real threat, especially considering it’s much easier to change laws while they’re still only bills.

The real threats always starts as a nuisance.

This is the exact same thing as the law that makes products world wide say this product contains materials that may cause cancer according to the state of California. It’s a nothing burger. It will be a very minor inconvenience and a joke that people harp on about for decades to come.