Re: [PATCH] vfs: require verified birth date for file creation

[Mike Keehan]

On Wed,  1 Apr 2026 14:43:21 +0200
Christian Brauner <brauner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> New regulation mandates that all digital content
> creation operations must be performed by verified adults. As file
> creation is the most fundamental content creation primitive in any
> operating system, the kernel must enforce age verification at the VFS
> layer.
> 
> This patch introduces CONFIG_VFS_AGE_VERIFICATION which, when enabled,
> requires every process to register a valid birth date via
> prctl(PR_SET_BIRTHDATE) before being permitted to create files. The
> birth date is stored in struct task_struct and inherited across fork().
> 
> ...

Sorry to be so late to reply.

Should we consider that mental competence versus age is a bell curve and add
a test for being past it, say 65?  (Yes, I'd fail that test. Err, what am I
doing here?? )

Mike