A running inventory of US state laws that require operating system providers to collect age data from users, along with Ageless Linux's compliance status for each one. Every entry reads the same way.
These laws follow two distinct models, but both create the same compliance moat for open-source operating systems (see Goldman, "Segregate-and-Suppress").
Focuses on app stores. Requires "commercially reasonable" age verification — which could mean government ID checks. Requires parental consent for minors. Texas version has been blocked as likely unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Utah is the only state with a private right of action (individuals can sue, not just the AG).
Linux impact: Primarily affects app store operators. If
apt, Flathub, or Snap Store are "covered application stores,"
their maintainers have obligations. Individual distro maintainers face
less direct liability, but the definition is broad enough to sweep them in.
Focuses on operating system providers. Requires self-declared age collection at account setup, real-time API for age signals. No ID verification — just a birthdate field. This is the model that directly targets Linux distributions, because it requires the OS itself to collect and transmit age data.
Linux impact: Every distribution is an "operating system provider." Every maintainer who ships a custom image is a person who "controls the operating system software on a general purpose computing device." Ageless Linux exists to make this absurdity tangible.
Apple and Google already comply. The 600+ volunteer Linux distributions cannot. The compliance cost is zero for trillion-dollar platform companies and prohibitive for community projects. Both models passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Both were supported by the major platform companies.
This is not a coincidence. This is a compliance moat.
The EFF calls this pattern "a windfall for Big Tech and a death sentence for smaller platforms."
Ageless Linux compliance status across all jurisdictions, all dates:
NONCOMPLIANT
Cost of one Ageless Linux device: $12-18
Maximum combined US penalty for one device given to one child:
$46,000
US penalty-to-cost ratio: 3,067:1
Brazil penalty for one violation: up to 522,222:1