Last week, the House voted on the
KIDS Act
, a disjointed package of legislation that seeks to control Americans’ web browsing and private messaging. The package combines a revised version of the
Kids Online Safety Act
(
KOSA), with several other internet bills, study bills, reporting requirements, and new regulations. Different parts of the bill
pressure
online services to impose different age-gating schemes, using different standards. EFF
opposed this bill
, along with many of our members and supporters.
Take action
Tell Congress: no internet age-gates
The
bill passed
the House, 267-117. It now heads to the Senate, where its fate remains uncertain. But this fight is not over. Even if you took our earlier action to contact the House, we need you to reach out to your Senators today.
The KIDS Act Will Lead to Mandatory Age Checks
Many of the bills in the KIDS Act share the same premise: that children and teenagers should have different experiences online than adults. In practice, that requires websites and apps to determine who is under 18—and who isn’t. That’s where the problems with the KIDS Act start.
EFF certainly supports giving all users better privacy and safety tools online. But those protections should not, and do not need to, come at the expense of privacy or free expression. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the tradeoff the KIDS Act makes.
There is no way to determine a
user’s age online
that is both privacy protective and accurate. Some age verification processes may rely on collecting government-issued ID, while others may use biometric scans. Others will use algorithms to guess a user’s age based on facial images or online behavior. But no matter the method, every system demands users hand over sensitive personal information that links their offline identity to their online activity. And then, once that valuable data is collected, it can be leaked, hacked, or misused. In fact, we’ve
already seen
several breaches
of age veri
… [more]
