1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

Hi Congressman. I am a software engineer writing to urge you to oppose H.R.8250 - Parents Decide Act. I understand that people are concerned about what kids do online, but these age verification requirement laws completely fail to understand how the internet works. Most computers and operating systems ARE NOT PCs. They are servers, appliances (both industrial and home), etc. Why does my smart fridge need age verification? Do I have to provide my ID to get a glass of water? How old is the “user” of the server that hosts the Congress.gov site? What features on a Roomba robot vacuum need to be age-gated? As you can see, this doesn’t even make sense, nevermind the obvious issue of overreaching government surveillance that we seem to be hurdling full-speed towards. Additionally, this type of age verification makes it easier to TARGET children since they are now specifically identified. “Parents decide?” We already have that. This is “government decides,” and should be wholly rejected.