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Easy, "For legal reasons, this OS is not available in California"
I just realized. Does this mean that developing an OS without age checks is illegal in those states?
Do we know whether any Linux distributions will be refusing to implement anything like this?
I'd personally love to see the fireworks if Microsoft refuses to implement this, and takes no action to prevent Windows from being imported into or used in California?

How could California plausibly respond that would harm Microsoft more than its own economy?

It seems shortsighted to define the age bracket API specifically around California's chosen four brackets. Why not merely return two integers bounding the age bracket, so that the API can adapt to different regulatory environments?
Perhaps they should release a "Kids" version of Ubuntu for regions where age verification is important.

Use it as an opportunity to promote the "Ubuntu Core" architecture (i.e., "immutable" Ubuntu) just like Microsoft did with Windows "S" editions.

Edubuntu comes to mind.