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PayPalWe've covered here before on individual US states setting up their own age verification laws, and now a new US Congress bill has been proposed for it. If passed, this would then potentially set it all up to be nation-wide across the entirety of the US.
The bill was introduced on April 13th and has been referred to the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce. It's being sponsored by the Democratic party's Josh Gottheimer, with it being co-sponsored by Republican Elise M. Stefanik so it has bipartisan support.
The current concerning thing - is that the actual bill text doesn't seem to have been provided yet. All we know is the main introduction title of: "To require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system, and for other purposes".
It could go either way with it simply asking for people to enter their date of birth or more concerning is actual proper verification using some form of ID. The other bit about it being for "other purposes" also leaves me with a rather uneasy feeling. These types of bills we've seen elsewhere are always a first step towards something worse. They all mean less privacy, less freedom, more tracking and a potential for more security problems when things inevitably get leaked somewhere.
This appears to be part of the "Parents Decide Act" announced earlier in April by Gottheimer, as just one step in the process. So expect a lot more to come. Some bullet point plans from it:
- Require operating system developers like Apple and Google to verify users’ ages when setting up a new device, rather than relying on self-reported ages.
- Allow parents to set age-appropriate content controls from the start, including limiting access to social media, apps, and AI platforms.
- Ensure that age and parental settings securely flow to apps and AI platforms, so content is tailored appropriately for children.
- Prevent children from accessing harmful or explicit content — including inappropriate AI chatbot interactions — by creating a consistent, trusted standard across platforms.
Currently, the bill is only in the introductory stage so it hasn't yet passed and become law, so if this is important to you in the US you may want to speak to your representatives.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: LachuBut any other implementation than field in passwd is bad.I'll quote from the article:
Quoting: Liam Dawerather than relying on self-reported ages.Hence just having a box that says 'how old are you?' with a simple input is not good enough.
Some options for how it may actually work:
- Scan your ID card to verify (although many people in the USA apparently don't have an ID card because they don't really need it and don't want to spend the money, which to me as a Belgian is wild).
- Scan your driver's license to verify.
- Scan your birth certificate to verify.
- Input your SSN (Social Security Number).
- Submit a blood sample.
- Maybe you'll be able to request some kind of certificate from your city hall which can be scanned.
- Or perhaps something else I didn't think of.
Of course, those could be defeated by having someone else do it for you, so maybe monitors will have iris scanners and keyboards fingerprint scanners so you're constantly being verified (government of the USA, I'll take payment for my contributions to your cause in silver or Ethereum, thanks).
Man. When you finally find out that Neuromancer was unrealistic optimistic, it kinda hurts.
Quoting: emphyThat's the plot twist. The politicians only campaign on anti-big government. After the campaigning is done, all the politicians are for big government. "my top down command and control government is better than your top down command and control government, totes". Vote Blue no matter who or Big Red Wave!! It's all the same; different coat of paint.It could go either way with it simply asking for people to enter their date of birth ...The pro and anti big government politicians in the us seem to have settled on bad government as a compromise.
Silly buggers.
I'm a parent of 3 young kids. It's NOT that hard to keep an eye on what your kids are doing online. And it's already a nightmare to try to manage parental controls on most devices.
I'd be happy if they would stop at:
1) Force all media apps (like Smart TV apps) to allow the setting of a parent PIN + a kids profile where parents can set the age of content (like Netflix does it).
2) Social media platforms with over X users should have the ability to create a supervised account for children where parents can see their chats & approve their connections (like Kids Messenger). F*ck SnapChat & their disappearing chats.
3) Router level website filtering that doesn't suck.
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Frankly the state of parental controls is abysmal. I'm a fricking programmer & I find it all convoluted, annoying & unintuitive. And that's when it's even available.
We don't need age verification - parents will just register all users as 18+ to avoid the headaches of having a device that suddenly can't access things when you need it. Unless you're going to fingerprint ID a user everytime they log in.... this is going to be more surveillance for no benefit.
The parents who care are already doing a pretty good job.
Quoting: tmtvlScan your ID card to verifyI guarantee every device & account in the house will be registered to whoever the most tech savvy adult is & that will be that.
Why yes, I DO have 5 profiles on this Windows PC just for me. They just happen to be called Jane, John, Jimmy, Suzey & John Jr. 😝
Last edited by sherriw on 15 Apr 2026 at 8:49 pm UTC
Quoting: tmtvlHaving someone else do it for you is the least of our worries.Quoting: LachuBut any other implementation than field in passwd is bad.I'll quote from the article:
Quoting: Liam Dawerather than relying on self-reported ages.Hence just having a box that says 'how old are you?' with a simple input is not good enough.
Some options for how it may actually work:
- Scan your ID card to verify (although many people in the USA apparently don't have an ID card because they don't really need it and don't want to spend the money, which to me as a Belgian is wild).
- Scan your driver's license to verify.
- Scan your birth certificate to verify.
- Input your SSN (Social Security Number).
- Submit a blood sample.
- Maybe you'll be able to request some kind of certificate from your city hall which can be scanned.
- Or perhaps something else I didn't think of.
Of course, those could be defeated by having someone else do it for you, so maybe monitors will have iris scanners and keyboards fingerprint scanners so you're constantly being verified (government of the USA, I'll take payment for my contributions to your cause in silver or Ethereum, thanks).
People have direct access to the checking code how do you keep them from making a mod that always says it's good to go?
Also, which wallet address(jk.)?
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