Transcription
This law will affect everyone. California just passed a law that requires your phone to spy on you. Not a suggestion, not a terms of service update that you can opt out of, but a legal requirement. Every app you open, every launch, every download, your device is now required to report information about you to anyone who asks. They call it a safety feature, but I'm going to prove that it's something much more dangerous than that.
California just passed a new law. And on the surface, it sounds reasonable. Age verification about protecting the kids. Nobody's going to argue with that in public. But I spent 20 years as a professional hacker and an information security analyst, and I know how these systems get built, how they get broken, and most importantly, how they get used to control people. And when I read this law, I saw something that most people are completely missing.
This law doesn't just apply to social media. It doesn't just apply to apps. And it doesn't just apply to your phone. It applies to every piece of software on every device that you own. Your laptop, your desktop, your tablet, every operating system running on every machine, including the free open-source software that millions of people use to run their businesses, learn to code, and build things without asking for anyone's permission. Yes, Linux. This is going to be insane. And the people who wrote this law had no idea that software like that even existed. That ignorance just broke something important. And by the end of this video, you're going to understand exactly what and exactly why it affects you, even if you've never written a line of code in your life or even know what these operating systems are.
Now, let me show you what this law actually requires in plain language. It's called AB 1043 if you want to go look it up yourself, and I'll have that information in the description. Starting January 1st, 2027, every operating system in California must collect your age when you set up a new device. Then broadcast the age in real time to every app that asks for it. And when they say every operating system, they mean every operating system, your smart TV, your 3D printer, your refrigerator, even potentially your thermostat. Any device with software that connects to an app store to receive updates or downloads is covered under this law. California just decided that your television may need to know how old you are before it turns on.
Now you get sorted into one of four age brackets. Under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, and 18 and over. And that signal follows you everywhere. Every app, every launch, and every download. Now, here's where it falls apart completely. Think about servers that run on the internet. Not your laptop, but the machines in the background. The ones processing your Google searches, streaming your video, routing your payments. Those machines have no screen, no keyboard, no user sitting in front of them. They spin up, they do a job, and they get shut down. Sometimes even in seconds. There is no one there to enter a birthday. There is no account setup screen. There is no age to verify. California just mandated age verification for machines that have no humans operating them. This law doesn't even know machines like that exist. It doesn't even make sense. And that is the most dangerous kind of law that there is. One written by people who are technically illiterate about what they're regulating.
Here's the moment that stopped me cold. A calculator. Not a social media platform, not a streaming service. An open-source calculator firmware. Now, open-source means that the code is public, that anyone can see it, anyone can use it, nobody owns it, and it's built by volunteers mostly, and it's used by students and engineers and hobbyists all over the world. This calculator firmware software just geoblocked the entire state of California. Not because they did anything wrong, not because anyone was harmed by their calculator, but because complying with this law would require them to build age verification infrastructure into a calculator. They don't have the lawyers, the budget, or the engineers to even do it. So, they did the only thing that they could. They put up a sign that says, "You know what, California? You're not welcome here."
Now, let that land for a second. California passed a law so broad, so disconnected from reality that a calculator had to ban the entire state. And it doesn't stop there. There's a small open-source operating system called Midnight BSD. And they made the same announcement, same decision, same reason. They can't fight it. They can't comply with it. They just have to keep coding and believe that the software should be free. Two completely different pieces of software, two completely different teams, but one identical conclusion. California just made building free software a legal liability.
Now, here's what most people miss when they first hear about this law. They think this is about social media or it's about kids and protecting them on TikTok or some niche corner of the internet that they don't use. It's not. It's about the device in your hand right now. If you have an iPhone, this law applies to Apple. If you have an Android, this law applies to Google. If you have a Windows laptop, this law applies to Microsoft. Every single one of them now has a legal obligation to collect your age and encode it into a signal and broadcast it to every app that you open, every launch, every download, every single time. And California is threatening developers with fines up to as much as $7,500 per affected child if they intentionally or even accidentally classify the wrong age bracket. Imagine a developer makes a mistake and their app is downloaded thousands or tens of thousands of times and it's a cost of $7,500 per affected child. That's bankruptcy.
And here's the part that caught me this morning. I opened the app store on my iPhone to install an app and before I could do anything, a screen appeared and said, "Hey, there's an age-appropriate experience in the apps now. Share that you're an adult, so you're not limited to child and teen content." I didn't ask for that screen. I didn't trigger it. It just appeared. Apple isn't waiting for the law to take effect in 2027. Apple is already complying right now today on your phone. The law hasn't even kicked in yet, but the infrastructure is already being built around you, one continue button at a time. You didn't consent to that. Nobody asked you. It was decided for you. This is what government-mandated spyware looks like. It doesn't show up in a trench coat. It shows up with a friendly icon, soft language, and a little continue or enter your age button.
And here's the part that should make every person in California genuinely angry. The law assumes that you'll just type in your real birthday. That's it. No ID check, no verification yet, just a number that you type at setup. So, it doesn't actually protect children. A 10-year-old can just type in 1990. The law does nothing to stop that. What it does do is build the infrastructure, the collection system, the broadcast mechanism, the signal that follows you across every app on your device. And it's an infrastructure that doesn't go away. But here's the thing. This was never really about protecting children in the first place. And I'm going to show you why.
Age verification at the operating system level. That's the software that runs before anything else. The foundation that every app sits on is not a safety feature. It is infrastructure. You build the checkpoint first. Then you decide what it checks. Today it's age. Tomorrow it's identity. Next year. It's a national digital ID embedded into your operating system required before you can even turn on your computer. And before you call that paranoid, I want you to think about something. 3 years ago, if I told you that New York would require a background check to buy a 3D printer, you'd have called that paranoid. 2 years ago, if I told you that states would try to make it illegal to simply possess 3D printing files, you'd have called that paranoid. Yet, here we are. The pattern isn't paranoia. The pattern is the playbook. And the playbook always starts with something that sounds reasonable. Protect the children. Stop some criminals. Keep people safe. And then the infrastructure stays long after the original justification is gone.
I think here's what makes me angry. Not just angry, but angry in a very specific way. The people writing these laws have never built a server. They've never looked at a piece of software and understood what it actually does, how it works, or who depends on it. They don't know what a headless machine is, a computer with no screen, no keyboard, no human, just a machine doing a job in the dark. They don't know what free software means. They don't know that the calculator that they just regulated was built by a team of unpaid volunteers. And that ignorance isn't neutral. When powerful people legislate things that they don't understand, the damage isn't accidental. It's just really unaccountable. Nobody gets blamed when a bad law crushes a community of volunteers who built something that the entire world depends on. Nobody gets blamed when a student in California can no longer access the free tools that could have changed their life. That's the part that should probably keep you up at night.
We have been here before, not with this software, but with this pattern. Look at 3D printing, the right to repair your own devices, open-source files, now the operating systems running the internet itself. Every time it's the same move. Find something that gives individuals power and freedom. Find something that operates outside of the permission structure. Find something that people can use to build, to create, and operate independently, and then legislate it into a dependency. Because a population that can build its own tools is harder to control. And a population that needs permission to turn on their computer, that population is much easier to manage.
Now, it's not all doom and gloom. Here's some good news. We've beaten this type of playbook before. There were several bills in Washington state, one of which would have required your 3D printer to check anything that you printed against a state-managed database. That one failed here, although it's progressing in other states. And there's also another bill in Washington state that talked about the possession of 3D printing files, just possessing them being a criminal offense. Now, that bill has been neutered quite a bit and uh a lot of things have been removed and amended. It's going to pass, but it's still a step in the wrong direction. But the reason that some of these bills have failed and others have been amended is because people paid attention, because people showed up, and people spoke up. That pressure works.
Now, there's a bill, for instance, in Wisconsin that tried to ban VPNs and that was pulled back after public backlash. That was an attempt to make anonymity illegal. These aren't coincidences. They're proof that when people understand what's happening and make noise about it, the outcome can change. So, here's what you do right now. Number one, share this video. Not because it helps me, but because the people writing these laws are counting on you and everyone else not knowing that this is happening. Every view is one more person who does. Number two, if you're in California, it's really not too late. You can contact your state legislators. Even though this bill is already passed, the 2026 session is still open. This law can be amended before it takes effect. The link is in the description. And number three, subscribe because this is not the last battle. This is one front in a much larger war and I'm going to keep mapping it out for you.
The device in your pocket is the most personal object that you own. It knows where you go, what you search, who you talk to, what you buy, how you think. And California just decided that it also needs to know how old you are and to share this with everyone who asks. Today it's age and I promise you it won't end there. The checkpoint is built. That infrastructure is in place. The mechanism exists now. And once a government has a mechanism, the question was never really whether they'd use it. The question is always what do they use it for next? I've spent 30 years watching how these systems get built, expanded, and turned against the people that they were supposed to protect. This is how it starts. The last frontier of digital freedom is absolutely worth defending. The question is whether enough people understand what's at stake before the door closes. If you haven't seen my war on 3D printing videos, go check them out or take a look at some of these others.