With various states going in on requiring “age verification”, a prelude to abolishing anonymity, the Federal government seems to not want to be left out. A bipartisan bill H. E. 8250 has been proposed that requires people be approved according to the dictates of Leviathan; the bill is ironically called the “Parents Decide Act”.
The bill is mindbogglingly broad. The “operating system provided” does not just mean the creators or vendors of operating systems, but anyone who licenses or controls the operating system. This means if you own any equipment with software involved in the “basic function” in any device, you are responsible for collecting and making available the “age” (and in the future, any other information) of anyone who uses your device, and be fully criminally liable if you don’t rigorously do this.
Oh, and altering an “operating system” to not require this would be illegal, as would using any “operating system” that doesn’t allow for this government permission structure.
Again, once the requirements to “verify age” are implemented, with any and all other “operating systems” becoming illegal, then it becomes trivial to require any and all other information to use simple devices with permission as dictated by the Federal Trade Commission (or other government agency) to be required. The restriction of under eighteen year olds can easily be changed to restrict anyone at the government’s whim. After all, the bill’s stated intent is for age verification and other purposes.
And yes, this means any “app developer” (meaning anyone who “owns” or “controls) of any “software application or electronic service”. This is also quite broad and no “data protection standard” will stand in the way of unscrupulous people—especially the government—from obtaining what ever information is mandated to be shareable.
Even with just the birthday, all an “app developer” would need is your sex and ZIP code to identify 87% of Americans… and that was way back in 1997. With the information able to be collected now, it’s certainly approaching 100% of Americans if not effectively there already.
This isn’t about protecting kids, it’s about controlling you.
The bill can be read here, or below:
