Linux and open-source developers are pushing back against Colorado’s proposed age-verification law, warning it could restrict root access, burden small OS vendors, and undermine open-source learning and experimentation.
Colorado lawmakers introduced bill SB26-051 in January, proposing that operating systems collect users’ ages and share that data with app developers as part of a wider effort to age-gate the internet through user devices.
While the proposal appears targeted at commercial ecosystems such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, Linux and open-source developers warn the law could also affect community-driven operating systems and smaller vendors lacking Big Tech resources.
Carl Richell, founder and CEO of System76 and developer of Pop!_OS, said the proposal conflicts with the principles of open source and could limit educational computing access.
Open-source developers argue compliance would create a major logistical and regulatory burden for smaller OS makers. They also warn age-gating systems could block children from accessing certain applications, deny root access, and restrict low-level experimentation essential to learning Linux and computing fundamentals.
“There is nothing like learning from example, and the Linux desktop is a free, open-source example of how to build an entire operating system,” said Richell, who described open source as “the best way to learn computing.”
Warning against restrictions on system access, Richell said a platform that blocks app interaction or root access for younger users “breaks that.”
Richell spent weeks lobbying Colorado lawmakers for amendments and appeared before a Colorado House of Representatives committee on April 23rd to argue against the bill’s implications for Linux and open-source systems.
