Last week, the House voted on the **KIDS Act**, a comprehensive legislative package seeking to control Americans’ web browsing and private messaging. This package consolidates a revised version of the **Kids Online Safety Act** (**KOSA**) with various other internet bills, study mandates, reporting requirements, and new regulations. Different sections of the bill exert pressure on online services to implement diverse age-gating schemes, each with varying standards. The **Electronic Frontier Foundation** (**EFF**), alongside numerous members and supporters, has voiced strong opposition to this bill. ### House Passage and Senate Uncertainty The bill passed the House with a vote of 267-117 and now moves to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain. However, the fight for digital rights advocates is far from over. ### The Inevitable Rise of Mandatory Age Checks A core premise of many bills within the **KIDS Act** is the notion that children and teenagers should have distinct online experiences compared to adults. In practice, this necessitates websites and applications to accurately determine if a user is under 18. This is where the fundamental problems with the **KIDS Act** emerge. While the **EFF** supports enhancing privacy and safety tools for all online users, these protections should not compromise privacy or free expression. Unfortunately, the **KIDS Act** mandates precisely such a trade-off. There is no method for online age verification that is both privacy-protective and accurate. Some age verification processes might demand government-issued identification, while others could utilize biometric scans. Alternative approaches involve algorithms that attempt to infer a user's age based on facial images or online behavior. Regardless of the technique, every system requires users to surrender sensitive personal information, linking their offline identity to their online activities. Once collected, this valuable data becomes vulnerable to leaks, hacks, or misuse. Indeed, there have already been several data breaches involving age verification providers. ### Continued Regulation of Online Speech The revised **KOSA** language embedded within the **KIDS Act** continues to pressure companies into policing lawful speech online. Platforms are mandated to "establish, implement, maintain, and enforce" policies addressing content related to gambling or the use of alcohol or cannabis. This encourages platforms to broadly restrict speech on these topics, potentially impacting a teenager seeking advice on a parent’s gambling problem or searching for substance abuse recovery resources. When platforms face legal repercussions for their content moderation policies, they often err on the side of deleting speech. ### Prioritizing Universal Privacy There is a more effective approach to safeguarding young people online. Instead of promoting a convoluted system of age checks, increased surveillance, and greater restrictions on information access, Congress could enact a strong, comprehensive privacy law that benefits all users. A crucial first step would be to ban behavioral advertising that tracks users across the web, benefiting individuals of all ages. The **EFF** urges the Senate to reject the **KIDS Act** and instead concentrate on developing a robust, bipartisan privacy package for everyone.