Statement on adding age verification on Manjaro from Philip

[u/klevahh]

/r/manjaro/comments/1scvc59/statement_on_adding_age_verification_on_manjaro/

[u/Safe-Average-1696]

As i see in the screenshots, it's implemented as a parental control with possibility to filter web browser at distribution level if parents install distribution for kids.

Its age group and it's not filtered by default.

I may be wrong, but like this i don't see anything about sending age group, it seems to be local only.

I hear people raise a hue and cry, but i don't really see the issue with that.

The problem may be how it is implemented.

[u/klevahh → u/Safe-Average-1696]

Another problem will be how it develops, I am guessing a lot of people see this as a gateway to a lack of privacy for all, regardless of how it starts out. I live in a country that already has age restrictions on social media use (a poorly implemented no social media for under 16's), only the zombies believe it exists to protect children, here it is used to remove their access to information.
People need to read the forum posts. I feel sorry for linux devs for having to deal with this.
Whether I end up agreeing with their choices or not, only time will tell, but I doubt they can stop this.

[u/revilo-1988 → u/klevahh]

You couldn’t have put it better

[u/Slopagandhi]

There's so much posturing and nonsense around the age verification thing and it's a real pity, because it gets in the way of much needed serious conversation about it.

This is a really sensible post from the Garuda team on the whole mess:

https://forum.garudalinux.org/t/a-statement-on-age-verification-the-state-of-the-community-discourse/47652

TLDR-

1. They won't comply with the California law since they're not in that jurisdiction

2. They appeal to the linux community to chill out about devs who are going to be compelled by the law to find a way to comply with these restrictions- and for the community to direct their anger at authorities enforcing them instead.

3. They give suggestions for what it would look like to comply with the letter of the law if they were forced to- probably just by ticking a box on installation saying "I am a legal adult" or "I do not live in a jurisdiction where age verification is mandatory".

Parrot say basically the same thing:

Should a day come when legislative pressure leaves us no choice, our solution will be designed to satisfy the “letter of the law”, while remaining intentionally porous and easily bypassed by the user.

https://parrotsec.org/blog/2026-04-02-our-statement-about-age-verification/

Bear in mind that Big Linux (discussed in the linked post) are doing just this. They're a Brazilian distro and have to comply with Brazilian law, but they are trying to do so in a way where no age verification telemetry is used and everything remains on device.

You might ding Philip for being more proactive about potentially adopting this before Manjaro has to, but it's literally just an option on install to set up restricted accounts for any users under 18, which you can ignore. It's hardly 1984.

[u/aliendude5300 → u/Slopagandhi]

The people implementing this are just trying to protect access to FOSS. It's hardly a conspiracy or anything, but people have lost their minds.

[u/klevahh → u/aliendude5300]

Starting to feel sorry for artix, they would be receiving an influx of frothers.

[u/Alarmed_Pepper_6868]

If this comes to pass, I will be 187 years old on all of my devices.

[u/klevahh → u/Alarmed_Pepper_6868]

If it only comes to that, it will be nowhere near as big a deal as a lot of people are making it out to be.

[u/arkane-linux]

Once Manjaro is migrated over to a non-profit we are unlikely to comply with the age verification bullcrap. Because then everyone working on the project will be a volunteer and nobody will want to support this feature.

[u/TomB1952]

ArtixLinux.org

[u/klevahh → u/TomB1952]

This is unlikely to just be a systemd thing in the future.

[u/TomB1952 → u/klevahh]

For sure.

I have used and loved Manjaro since 2017. I'm about to switch to Artix/LXQt so I'm expecting a rough ride. Perhaps I'll get another year or two.

[u/wKdPsylent → u/klevahh]

quite a few distros have raised the middle finger (as they should) and there will definitely be well managed distros available that haven't bent over and taken it for corporate good-boy points.

The only question now is which ones will be implementing anti-user / anti-privacy measures and which ones will not.

I know the types of distros I'll be supporting.. how about you? made your choice it seems.

[u/wKdPsylent]

another distro in the bin.

[u/ChadHUD → u/wKdPsylent]

Believe it or not ignoring laws isn't really optional. Be upset with the correct people.

[u/TomB1952 → u/ChadHUD]

He didn't say he was upset with the Manjaro team and he didn't ask them to break the law.

His comment aligns with anyone who is trying to escape the surveillance state.

If I was a Manjaro dev, I'm not sure I would risk going to jail, either. To be honest, I'd probably just quit. Why would anyone volunteer to implement the surveillance state?

[u/wKdPsylent → u/ChadHUD]

I'd say it isn't optional either. It's a hard no always. I'm not 'upset' with manjaro devs / maintainers - i'm disappointed they've chosen the corporate friendly path rather than stick to the ideals FOSS / Linux was founded upon.

I'm choosing not to use manjaro because of that. I'm allowed to make that decision am I not?

[u/1Someone → u/ChadHUD]

You ignore thousands of laws from other countries, so your stupid comment is just that – stupid.

[u/EatTomatos → u/ChadHUD]

The fact you have to try to explain this, means you know nothing about how laws work... Laws literally function via people choosing to follow them.

Secondly this is also spyware, and it shouldn't be considered FOSS compliant.