1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Vote no on HB8250. This bill doesn't give parents control—it forces every American to hand over identity data to use a computer. The "Parents Decide Act" is a misnomer. It mandates that operating system providers verify the age of every user, not just children, and build APIs allowing any app developer to query that data. This creates a centralized identity infrastructure at the OS level, turning fragmented data across hundreds of services into one high-value target. We cannot keep this information secure. Every major breach proves that consolidated databases of personal information become irresistible targets for hackers and hostile actors. This bill's real purpose is to deanonymize the internet. It requires tying identity to devices at setup, making anonymous computing effectively illegal. Open-source systems like Linux distributions and privacy-focused tools like Tails have no account infrastructure to comply with these mandates. The bill would either ban them or compel developers to write surveillance code—a First Amendment issue the sponsors ignore entirely. Humans are not telemetry sources to be monitored at the operating system layer. If you want to help families, support actual parental tools that don't require building a national identity registry. There has to be more valuable work you could be doing than rubber-stamping surveillance infrastructure disguised as child safety.