Vote No on S. 5226 – Protect Privacy & Free Speech Online

I'm writing to ask you to oppose S. 5226, the Parental Approval for Youth Social Media Act of 2026, currently before the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. I get why people are worried. No one wants kids trapped in endless doomscrolls, and parents deserve better support than what they're getting now. But this bill won't fix that problem—it'll make it worse for everyone. Here's why it keeps me up at night: the bill requires platforms to know whether any user is under 16 before letting them keep an account. Since there's no way to spot teenagers by sight, that means companies have to verify the age of every single person. In practice, that pushes us toward ID scans, facial estimates, or credit-card checks just to read a news site or follow a hobby community online. That's a lot to ask for something that's already a constitutional gray area. Courts have struck down similar state laws again and again. The ACLU and EFF have made it clear this approach sacrifices privacy without actually keeping kids safer. Data collected for verification becomes a target—breaches happen constantly, and suddenly your driver's license number is attached to your social media history. There are other ways forward. True privacy protections that shield everyone, regardless of age, would do more than building identity gates around speech. And parents should be free to use whatever tools work for their families without forcing every platform to become a background checker. This is my home state's internet we're talking about. Please don't let good intentions override the real risks here.