user: add required birth date field to non-root user creation by dylanmtaylor · Pull Request #4290 · archlinux/archinstall
github.com
Add a required birth date prompt (YYYY-MM-DD) to the user creation flow, stored as a systemd userdb JSON drop-in at /etc/userdb/<user>.user on the target system. Motivation Recent age verific...

Add a required birth date prompt (YYYY-MM-DD) to the user creation flow, stored as a systemd userdb JSON drop-in at /etc/userdb/<user>.user on the target system.

Motivation

Recent age verification laws in California (AB-1043), Colorado (SB26-051), Brazil (Lei 15.211/2025), etc. require platforms to verify user age. Collecting birth date at install time ensures Arch Linux is compliant with these regulations.

This is just a pull request, no changes yet.

The pull-request discussion thread has been locked, just like it happened for the similar thread in Systemd, owing to the amount of negative comments…

  • ViatorOmnium@piefed.socialEnglish
    42·
    1 month ago

    I agree with your worries about the second point. Mandating thing like this by law is bad. But having a standard on its own is not. Ideally this should have come from an industry standard and not a legal one, but inaction is part of what got us into this mess.

    • Feyd@programming.dev
      21·
      1 month ago

      Mandating thing like this by law is bad. But having a standard on its own is not.

      I agree with this. Here’s where it gets weird. All these bills stem from meta lobbying. Why do they regulation in this specific thing when they’re totally capable of forming a standard committee or something with Microsoft and Google?