Age Verification
California Assembly Passes Under-16 Social Media Ban
Buried past the 76-to-0 vote is a clause letting the Attorney General widen who counts as a “covered platform’ without the Legislature voting again.
5th Circuit Lets Texas Enforce App Store Age Checks
Texas drew its age line at the app store door and everyone has to show ID to get through it.
Minnesota Law Requires Platforms to Monitor and Age-Estimate All Users
Minnesota just mandated that platforms spy on every user to figure out which ones are kids.
Supreme Court Refusal in Vermont v. Meta Strengthens Addiction Suits Threatening Online Anonymity
The justices let an addiction case proceed and buried inside it is the end of logging on as a stranger.
California’s New Age-Verification Bill Frees Linux But Expands Age Tracking to the Open Web
California fixed the most obvious problem with its age-tracking law but replaced it with a version that follows you across the entire internet.
Texas Sues Discord, Seeks Mandatory Age Verification
Texas is using a child safety lawsuit to try to end anonymous access to Discord entirely.
Westminster Recycles Tobacco-Style Panic Campaign For Internet Crackdown
Somewhere in Westminster a whiteboard has “free speech = tobacco” written on it with three exclamation marks.
South Carolina’s New Social Media Law Puts Every User Under Age Surveillance
A bill sold as child protection builds the legal framework for surveilling every user in the state.
Big Tech Backs Colorado OS-Level Age Data Bill
Apple and Google would become the state-appointed gatekeepers of every Coloradan’s age data and their lobbyists are pushing hard for the privilege.
Oklahoma Sues Roblox, but the “Fix” Is Biometric Checks
The lawsuit designed to protect children from surveillance essentially mandates a biometric surveillance system for 150 million users.
Shapiro’s AI Chatbot Plan Opens the Door to ID-Gated, Surveilled Conversations
Pennsylvania’s governor is using one rogue chatbot to justify putting a digital checkpoint in front of every AI conversation in the state.
Meta Will Fight Ofcom Over the Math, Just Not the Censorship
The company that could most credibly challenge Britain’s online speech regime is instead asking a London court to please use a different revenue column.