1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose the package of child online safety bills currently moving through the House of Representatives that would mandate age verification and identity requirements for internet access. These measures, including the Kids Online Safety Act and the App Store Accountability Act, would eliminate online anonymity and create unprecedented mass surveillance infrastructure under the guise of protecting children. There is no way to verify age without verifying identity through government documents, payment information, or other identifying data. Whether stored by platforms or third-party vendors, this permanently links users' offline identities with their online behavior. This represents one of the most sweeping civil rights rollbacks in recent history. The consequences for vulnerable populations would be severe. LGBTQ+ youth who rely on anonymous online spaces to explore identity and seek support would be forced to tie their online access to government IDs in states like Kansas, which recently invalidated hundreds of trans residents' driver's licenses. Whistleblowers who expose corporate or government wrongdoing would lose the anonymity that protects them from retaliation. During the first Trump administration, dozens of government employees used anonymous Twitter accounts to reveal efforts to gut federal agencies and censor climate change research. Young people seeking reproductive health information would be deterred from accessing critical resources. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, KOSA's lead co-sponsor, explicitly stated the bill is essential to protect children from "the transgender in this culture." The Heritage Foundation has publicly announced plans to leverage KOSA to remove LGBTQ+ and abortion content from the internet by empowering state attorneys general to mass censor content deemed "harmful to minors." These laws do not protect children. They create massive data collection systems that predatory companies can exploit. Last week, the FTC declined to enforce COPPA, a landmark children's data protection law, to incentivize ID verification instead. The laws would create a lucrative market for third-party identification vendors while consolidating Big Tech power. A free society depends on the right to publish and consume information anonymously. I urge you to oppose all legislation requiring age verification or identity requirements for internet access.