Just in time for America’s 250th birthday, the House passed a sweeping package with the potential to make the internet a little less free.
Yes, Monday night the House gave a thumbs-up to the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, which, as noted in a post from the Energy and Commerce Committee, is intended to create “a safer online world for kids” by “making safety the default, giving parents more tools to protect their children and teens, and holding Big Tech accountable.”
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All this may sound like a godsend given growing frustrations with Big Tech, everyone’s general concern for children, and the moral panic surrounding what social media is doing to young people. Yet, in effect, what the KIDS Act would do if it were to become law is impose numerous design features on a variety of digital technologies, ranging from social media and online video-game platforms to adult websites and AI chatbots, that would further erode what little online privacy we have left.
Most notably, to different degrees, the KIDS Act would require providers of these platforms and technologies to estimate or verify the age of their users, then either grant or deny access or offer different user experiences based on whether someone is categorized as an adult or minor (or sometimes an adult, teenager, or child).
However, available age estimation and verification mechanisms are far from perfect, and all come with some risk. At best, those that rely on the analysis of data already collected by Big Tech further encourage and legitimize current data collection practices that many already see as invasive and creepy. At worst, they require creepier ones by having users upload government IDs or submit to biometric face scans (which have known accuracy problems), thus further normalizing these procedures as a standard part of one’s digital life while making individuals susceptible to data breaches.
Other mechanisms, like requiring one to provide credit card information for a card linked to adult-like activities (e.g., paying a utility bill), are probably less invasive than alternatives but still amount to forcing people to meaningfully identify themselves and risk potential breaches.
Now, some might claim this is a small price to protect minors from whatever harms they believe to be lurking online. However, even granting the internet is not entirely child-safe, and it would seem improbable that all but the most stringent age verification efforts would offer much additional protection to minors as many can be circumnavigated with ease.
THE KIDS ACT TREATS EVERYONE LIKE A KID
For example, most minors beyond a certain age can access a parental credit card just by asking to use it for some reasonable purchase. More adventurous ones can likely get their hands on a parental ID as well by simply staying up late enough and then “borrowing” it. Therefore, realistically, the only near-foolproof way for an age verification measure to work would be to require something like a face scan in conjunction with the submission of a digital ID (or scan of a physical ID) every time a user wishes to access a covered technology — which, whether intentional or not, might be the ultimate end point here.
Yet, regardless of whether we reach that end point, the fact remains that many of the processes used for online age verification often require information that could be used to meaningfully identify individuals. Subsequently, if such requirements were to become law, many adults in a supposedly free country might begin to think twice about the constitutionally protected content they access and the constitutionally protected speech in which they engage online as they come to rightfully believe they live in a country a little less free than it once was.
Daniel Nuccio is an independent journalist and a spring 2026 College Fix fellow. He is a regular contributor to the College Fix and the Brownstone Institute. He earned his doctorate in biology in 2025.
