Given that states and countries are now requiring that operating systems report the age of users, it is important that BusyBox be able to comply. Why? BusyBox is used in embedded devices that qualify for regulation under these bills (such as California's AB-1043). For most hardware, this would actually amount to just reporting epoc for root, as most devices won't directly have users. Applications on those may, but those usually have their own user management features.

This file replaces the adduser.c in BusyBox, and it differs from the original in offering a -b option which will add user's birthday to /etc/birthdays. The birthday needs to be passed in YYYYMMDD format, and it will be stored as such.

Two example scripts exist here to offer the commands howoldami and useragerange which will provide either the user's age or one of the age ranges specified in California's bill. As the standard UNIX interface and signal system is plain text, this change to adduser and the accompanying scripts transform the BusyBox + Linux system into a compliant operating system for those who require it.