1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

I'm writing as a constituent who's deeply concerned about what's happening behind the scenes with age verification legislation currently circulating through 21 states, including New York. An investigation revealed that five organizations—four of them British—are actively pushing these bills across America. What caught my attention is that one of them is the Age Verification Providers Association, a trade group whose members literally sell the verification technology being mandated. Another organization, 5Rights Foundation, is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and paid $50,000 to lobby the California Legislature in 2022. That foreign connection wasn't disclosed until over a year later, well after their bill passed. These groups helped write Britain's Online Safety Act and are now attempting to export that same framework here. We're being asked to trust legislation that was essentially drafted abroad, promoted by organizations with financial interests in the resulting surveillance infrastructure. I understand the intention behind protecting children online, but mass age verification creates serious privacy risks for everyone. These systems require collecting identifying information from ordinary users, creating databases that could be hacked, misused, or expanded for broader surveillance. Once you build that infrastructure, it rarely gets dismantled. Please don't let foreign-backed lobbyists determine whether New Yorkers lose their right to browse the internet privately. If you do receive further age verification bills, I urge you to reject versions influenced by overseas interests and commercial vendors who profit from surveillance. I also urge you to repeal the privacy-destroying SAFE for Kids Act before it goes into effect next year. Thank you for considering my concerns. Your actions will be remembered when the next election rolls around.