Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“For several years now, reports Reclaim the Net, lawmakers have been trying to pass legislation to require Americans to provide ID to do many of things on the Internet we can now do anonymously. In 2024, the bill — with the cuddly name of Kids Online Safety Act, it prompts us to ask, what brute would want kids to be unsafe online? — passed in the Senate but failed in the House. The Hill reports that ‘concerns over censorship and freedom of speech prevented it from ever hitting the House floor.’ The Senate bill doesn’t mandate age verification directly. But it does require the FTC … to determine ‘whether a reasonable and prudent person under the circumstances would have known that the user is a minor.’ How could platforms avoid liability for sure without imposing some kind of ID verification on all users?” (10/06/26)