A federal bill sitting in the Senate Commerce Committee -- introduced by two Democrats and two Republicans -- would require every operating system on every general-purpose computer to gate use behind an account and a declared age. Its text carries no exemption for open-source, nonprofit, or small developers. GrapheneOS, the account-less privacy OS BL:UF profiled after a traveler's duress-wipe feature got him federally charged, has already told the identical state-level requirement it would rather leave a market than build the account system this bill demands.
Now would be a good time to remind everyone that OS-level age verification is being pushed in large part by social media giants like Meta to shift responsibility for children accessing their harmful products onto third parties.