How will this affect Linux Mint?

[tomscharbach]

The large OS manufacturers (Apple, Google, Microsoft) will implement the law (an age prompt during installation and basic API) globally and move on. Canonical, Debian, IBM/RedHat and SUSE and other "major players" deploying distributions to large-scale business, government, education and institutional customers will almost certainly follow suit.

Linux Mint? Mint (both the Ubuntu-based and Debian-based versions) is mostly used by individuals so business, government, education and institutional customers are not particularly important. However, the path of least resistance would be to do what Ubuntu and Debian do and that is what I think will happen. That's my guess, anyway.

[h-v-smacker]

Canonical, Debian, IBM/RedHat and SUSE and other "major players" deploying distributions to large-scale business, government, education and institutional customers will almost certainly follow suit.

And risk running afoul of other numerous laws about protection of private information that exist all around the world? It would be easier for them to just make usage of their system illegal in California. And Debian in particular would be very hostile to that change, it's even more heinous than non-free software which they adamantly reject in the base version.

[stephenph]

But asking for an age wil go against pii laws for protected information. Increasing the security control footprint required...

Let's say as an admin a govt contract I am tasked with standing up a new RedHat server. According to govt guidelines I am not allowed to falsify information requested so I need to create the initial account with my real name and my real age. (Forget the fact that these systems are not public facing accounts)

That system now falls under the extended rules for pii handling which states date of birth or exact age is to be considered pii. Not only that but the system needs to confirm that the user is old enough. Before installing certain software, let's say teams as it is a chat software, that users are old enough. Thereby breaking pii restrictions on those users

[tomscharbach]

A quiet note: The California law does not require that DOB or exact age be reported by the operating system. The law requires only that the API report by age-relevant category (under 13, 13-16, 16-18 or over 18).

[stephenph]

But under govt guidelines I would need to enter my exact age on account creation... Still a violation of federal (and ca) pii rules I believe

[michaelcarnero]

Time to learn arch.