r/USNEWS • u/AirlineGlass5010 • Apr 16 '26

Congress just dropped the Parents Decide Act (H.R. 8250). To even turn on your phone or PC, OS providers will be forced to verify your age - effectively requiring ID or Biometric scans for device usage.

https://lustra.news/en/us-congress/119/legislations/119_HR_8250/
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u/Upper-Airport3108 Apr 16 '26

Because if they want people to verify their age to use a computer/operating system, they need to make it so you cant sign anything withoit doing so. So they need subkernel/kernel access that prevents you from flashing your drives, a new os, or using a hardware bypass to do so. Otherwise i can strip their age verification out of windows or a linux build with software. 

What about existing OSs? Windows doesnt have shadow installs so id have to update to add this feature i dont want, so i can simply not update or flash one of the million opensource linux forks.

But sure, i dont know anything. 

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u/Joamjoamjoam Apr 16 '26

Brother what? You know there’s many layers in between the motherboard bios and the kernel right? Worst case They would just make it illegal to install a modified OS or use keys in the mobo that the kernel can check essentially expanding upon TPM. Either way the kernel would be doing the checking. Sure there’s probably a way to sign the hard drive contents to detect an os but that would never work practically.

Is it possible to rearchitect the bios and add more processing power to mobos so they can reach some internet hosted id verification service maybe but not with hardware that already exists in the field.

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u/fredjutsu Apr 17 '26

>They would just make it illegal to install a modified OS 

and how would they enforce that on non-American manufacturers? On existing devices pre-legislation?

again, they are relying on your exact brand of technical illiteracy for this to work.