Age Verification API Laws, Protestware, and Clandestine Operating Systems
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2026 5:57 pm
10:58 AM 3/22/2026
Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) requires OS developers to implement OS age verification "during account setup" by January 1, 2027. Developers are legally required to push the update or face $7500 fines per "violation."
A few hundred to a few thousand bytes of bootloader code is banned. That included bootBASIC. Minimalist general purpose systems for science and education are now outlawed. FreeDOS developers have stated they cannot meet these requirements. General purpose microcontroller and SOC firmwares and banned. No more Arduino or ESP32. No more general purpose RTOS.
Handheld Linux gaming devices are banned. No more custom game firmwares. A Qbasic GUI would be required to provide such an interface or run on a modified DOS that does. The 65FC OS educational toy on a 2kb NES cart ROM cannot comply. On an Altair 8800 or Heathkit et3400, the user is the OS developer in real time. Byte by byte. The user/developer cannot comply. MikeOS cannot comply.
A new patch to something like a version of Atari DOS from 1981 for an Atari 800 is banned. Some of the worlds most efficient software including MenuetOS is now outlawed. Developers of systems in other nations such as Finland face fines unless they comply and implement the surveillance API.
Open source developers of the open source graphing calculator firmware called DB48X (and some Linux distro developers) stated they will ban their software from California and other territories that enforce similar laws.
Developers of older systems will be required to make a defense and plead good faith. Microsoft will plead for those users hanging onto Windows 7, XP, or 95. Unfortunately, small developers don't have the same legal teams and a special relationship with the government.
Many devices today are IOT including washers and fridges. Will they comply? Probably not. If this continues, they must be forced to. Once all the normal compliant people have to present their age to wash their clothes, then they might start waking up.
Territories with similar laws include California, Utah, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Spain, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia.
Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) requires OS developers to implement OS age verification "during account setup" by January 1, 2027. Developers are legally required to push the update or face $7500 fines per "violation."
A few hundred to a few thousand bytes of bootloader code is banned. That included bootBASIC. Minimalist general purpose systems for science and education are now outlawed. FreeDOS developers have stated they cannot meet these requirements. General purpose microcontroller and SOC firmwares and banned. No more Arduino or ESP32. No more general purpose RTOS.
Handheld Linux gaming devices are banned. No more custom game firmwares. A Qbasic GUI would be required to provide such an interface or run on a modified DOS that does. The 65FC OS educational toy on a 2kb NES cart ROM cannot comply. On an Altair 8800 or Heathkit et3400, the user is the OS developer in real time. Byte by byte. The user/developer cannot comply. MikeOS cannot comply.
A new patch to something like a version of Atari DOS from 1981 for an Atari 800 is banned. Some of the worlds most efficient software including MenuetOS is now outlawed. Developers of systems in other nations such as Finland face fines unless they comply and implement the surveillance API.
Open source developers of the open source graphing calculator firmware called DB48X (and some Linux distro developers) stated they will ban their software from California and other territories that enforce similar laws.
Developers of older systems will be required to make a defense and plead good faith. Microsoft will plead for those users hanging onto Windows 7, XP, or 95. Unfortunately, small developers don't have the same legal teams and a special relationship with the government.
Many devices today are IOT including washers and fridges. Will they comply? Probably not. If this continues, they must be forced to. Once all the normal compliant people have to present their age to wash their clothes, then they might start waking up.
Territories with similar laws include California, Utah, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Spain, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia.
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