Tell Congress: Don't Force Age Checks Online
Key takeaways
- Most companies are likely to respond to this legal risk by collecting much more personal information from users, like drivers’ licenses or passports.
- The bill also pressures online services to create and enforce content moderation policies for broad categories of lawful speech, and creates new risks for encrypted and private communications.
- For internet users of all ages, the KIDS Act threatens our privacy and freedom online.
Congress is preparing to vote on the KIDS Act, a sweeping internet bill that would pressure websites and apps to determine users’ ages before allowing them to read websites, send private messages, or participate in online communities.
While supporters insist the bill does not require age verification and have included language saying so, multiple parts of the package impose obligations that depend on websites taking steps to know who is under 18 years old. Most companies are likely to respond to this legal risk by collecting much more personal information from users, like drivers’ licenses or passports. Others will rely on age-estimation systems that guess users ages based on user activity or facial scans and inevitably make mistakes. Either way, users lose.
The bill also pressures online services to create and enforce content moderation policies for broad categories of lawful speech, and creates new risks for encrypted and private communications. Instead of encouraging privacy and security online, Congress is pushing websites toward more monitoring, more restrictions, and more age gates.