Access is everything

There were two things I yearned for in 1990. As a ten year old kid in the backseat, road trips from Colorado to Illinois meant hour after hour of staring at row after row of corn stalks. The boredom was palpable and the corn possibly responsible for a slight obsession with orderliness. If only there was a little TV that could help pass the time.

Oh, and how Encyclopedia Britannica must contain the answers to so many questions about the curious world out there. Were city streets really full of black-leather clad people standing around metal drums, garbage ablaze? (Rocky was particularly memorable.) What else lurked in the oceans and bounded across the savannas I saw when PBS’s Nature series happened to be on at the same time I sat in front of the TV? Alas, encyclopedias were too expensive for us.

36 years later, my under-13 kid struck up a conversation about the life spans of jellyfish. He said there were immortal species. Skeptical, I pushed back. His confidence didn’t waver because he “did his research.” He was right and I learned about the Turritopsis dohrnii.

They know more than I could have ever dreamed at that age.

There is always a way

Last week in Cabo, Mexico, an adult friend thought it would be hilarious to add El Mencho to a picture of our dinner outing, text it to his parents, and tell them we met a new “friend”. He asked ChatGPT to add El Mencho to a photo. It refused. My under-13 child said “oh, I got this”, found a photo of El Mencho, asked ChatGPT to add the person from the photo to the dinner party photo and voilà, we’re enjoying drinks with El Mencho. Our friend's parents asked what’s wrong with him. I was an impressed Dad.

Kids are smart and easily learn how to work around restrictions.

The best intentions can produce unintended consequences

Colorado’s Senate Bill 26-051 and California’s Assembly Bill No. 1043 require operating systems to report age brackets to app stores and web sites. A person who creates an account on a computer is supposed to be 18 or older and attest to the age of the user they’re creating for themselves or their child. In practice, this means anyone under 18 isn’t supposed to create a computer account on their own.

Most System76 employees installed operating systems and created accounts on their computer when they were under 18. They did this out of curiosity. Many started writing software. Some were already writing operating systems. I’m sure the story is similar at most tech companies. Limiting a child’s ability to explore what they can do with a computer limits their future. Removing user limitations to the computer (proprietary software, locked-down platforms like Android and iOS) is why System76 exists.

If there is any solace in these two laws, it’s that they don’t have any real restrictions. There is no actual age verification. Whoever installed the operating system or created the account simply says what age they are. They can lie. They will lie. They’re being encouraged to lie for fear of being restricted to a nerfed internet.

A parent that creates a non-admin account on a computer, sets the age for a child account they create, and hands the computer over is in no different state. The child can install a virtual machine, create an account on the virtual machine and set the age to 18 or over. It’s a similar technique to installing a VPN to get around the Great Firewall of China (just consider that for a moment). Or the child can simply re-install the OS and not tell their parents.

These laws put children in an awkward situation. They’re already scrunching up their faces to lie to social media age-verification algorithms required in Australia.

To the dark side

It can get worse. New York’s proposed Senate Bill S8102A requires adults to prove they’re adults to use a computer, exercise bike, smart watch, or car if the device is internet enabled with app ecosystems. The bill explicitly forbids self-reporting and leaves the allowed methods to regulations written by the Attorney General. Practical methods for a bill of such extreme breadth would require, in many instances, providing private information to a third-party just to use a computer at all. Privacy disappears.

In a bizarre twist, under its current wording, a Linux distribution downloaded from the internet could technically make the downloader the “device manufacturer”. They are the entity responsible for providing a freely distributed operating system to the device. In practice, this type of language is rarely enforced. Nonetheless, it highlights how laws written for centralized platforms like iOS and Android struggle to define who is responsible in open computing ecosystems where anyone can install or distribute the operating system.

Liberty has costs, but it’s worth it

A centralized platform designed to control the activity of the user creates the environment where the centralized platform provider can themselves then be controlled by higher powers. Decentralized platforms and app stores, like Linux, are essential to the personal liberty of adults and children.

This extends to the potential of humanity itself. The computer is the most powerful and versatile technology we’ve ever created. It is a foundational technology that affects the progress of all other innovations. A platform that controls the user’s activity, and can itself be controlled, limits the user’s ability to contribute to our shared future. Many of the world’s best programmers started experimenting with computers as children.

In the case of Colorado’s and California’s bills, effectiveness is lost. In the case of New York’s bill, liberty is lost. In the case of centralized platforms, potential is lost.

It’s cultural

Continuing to tighten the screws on access to the world will fail. Remember El Mencho. They’ll find a way.

The challenges we face are neither technical nor legal. The only solution is to educate our children about life with digital abundance. Throwing them into the deep end when they’re 16 or 18 is too late. It’s a wonderful and weird world. Yes, there are dark corners. There always will be. We have to teach our children what to do when they encounter them and we have to trust them.

Carl Richell

CEO

System76

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Some of these laws impose requirements on System76 and Linux distributions in general. The California law, and Colorado law modeled after it, were agreed in concert with major operating system providers. Should this method of age attestation become the standard, apps and websites will not assume liability when a signal is not provided and assume the lowest age bracket. Any Linux distribution that does not provide an age bracket signal will result in a nerfed internet for their users.

We are accustomed to adding operating system features to comply with laws. Accessibility features for ADA, and power efficiency settings for Energy Star regulations are two examples. We are a part of this world and we believe in the rule of law. We still hope these laws will be recognized for the folly they are and removed from the books or found unconstitutional.