1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

In March 2026, 371 security and privacy academics from 29 countries published an open letter calling for an immediate halt to age verification rollouts. The signatories include Ronald Rivest, a Turing Award winner, and Bart Preneel, president of the International Association for Cryptologic Research. These are not fringe voices but leading experts in security and cryptography, and their warning deserves serious consideration. I am writing to urge you to oppose any legislation mandating age verification systems for internet access. These academics describe such systems as "dangerous and socially unacceptable" because they would require government-issued IDs with strong cryptographic protection for every single interaction online. Every search query, message, and news article would require identity confirmation. This level of surveillance has no parallel in offline life, where children and adults alike can enter libraries, bookstores, and public spaces without proving their identity. The technical realities make this worse. Only a handful of large corporations have the resources to deploy identity verification at global scale, meaning these mandates would further centralize internet infrastructure in the hands of already-dominant companies. Smaller service providers would simply refuse compliance rather than bear the enormous cost. Meanwhile, age checks are easily circumvented with VPNs, and the predictable government response would be to ban VPNs outright. This would strip protection from dissidents, journalists, and activists worldwide who rely on VPNs to protect their communications under authoritarian regimes. The academics are requesting a pause until scientific consensus forms around the benefits, harms, and technical feasibility of age assurance technologies. Building mass identity verification systems first and studying consequences after is unreasonable. What is being constructed under the guise of child protection is surveillance infrastructure that will affect every adult who uses the internet. I ask that you publicly oppose age verification mandates and support the call for a moratorium until these systems can be properly evaluated.