May 26, 2026
Carded at the code club
Colorado and California Exempt Open Source from Age Attestation
Lawmakers blink as open-source fans roast another "think of the children" rule
TLDR: Colorado and California changed their child-safety bills so open-source software won’t have to ask users to prove their age. Commenters cheered the privacy win, but mostly used it to dunk on clueless lawmakers and blame Apple and Google for creating the bigger mess in the first place.
The big news is simple: Colorado and California carved out an exception for open-source software from new age-check rules, after developers argued that privacy-friendly community-made software shouldn’t be treated like ad-stuffed apps chasing kids’ attention. But the comments? Oh, they came in swinging. The loudest mood was basically: politicians made a tech rule they didn’t understand, then had to patch it when reality hit. One commenter mocked the whole thing as the classic “do something FOR THE CHILDREN” move, with zero clue how software actually works.
That sarcasm set the tone. Instead of celebrating a clean policy win, a lot of the community treated this like a messy public admission that the original idea was shaky. Another hot take was that this whole headache could have been avoided if Apple and Google had cracked down on creepy ads, tracking, and kid-targeted tricks years ago. In other words: open source didn’t cause the mess, big app stores did. That turned the thread into a mini blame game, with lawmakers catching heat on one side and giant tech companies getting dragged on the other.
There was also a very online layer of humor in the discussion: people joking that the law was basically saying, “If it’s impossible, just exempt Linux,” while others linked older mega-threads like receipts in a long-running internet court case. Underneath the memes, though, the community’s message was serious: forcing age checks on software that doesn’t collect personal data could actually hurt privacy more than it helps kids.
Key Points
- •Carl Richell says Colorado and California exempted open source software from age attestation requirements.
- •The article argues that open source software generally does not engage in behaviors such as personal data collection, child profiling, targeted ads, or addictive design patterns.
- •Richell says open source advocates worked with representatives in Colorado to draft language exempting open source software, code repositories, and container registries.
- •The article credits collaboration among System76, Red Hat, community members, and California lobbyists for helping shape the legislative language.
- •Richell says age attestation and age verification laws are spreading across the United States and internationally, and states that Pop!_OS and the COSMIC Desktop Environment will not include such features.