I shared this bill two weeks ago, and I'm staggered that no one else I've seen on Mastodon, or any other place online, has even mentioned it.
It does indeed look like the law would require every American child and adult, parent or not, to verify their age with a third party just to power up and use their own computer or phone in everyday fashion.
@Starfia Thanks for beating the drum!
I looked up H.R. 8250 and found a "Prognosis: 1% of being enacted" here:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr8250
Early opposition won't hurt nevertheless!
Thanks, Alex – I appreciate that source of reassurance.
Intuitively, this strikes me as unlikely to pass at the US federal level based simply on its merits. But I can't ignore the half-dozen US states that have recently enacted laws widely enforcing age verification or restricting online access (momentum backing federal law is historically built this way), and other regions – Australia, the UK, even Canada – who are, or are talking about, doing similarly (a more general trend of influence).
This particular bill strikes me as the biggest and most concerning one to date, but perhaps what I'm reacting to is the relative silence on Mastodon – though I think I'm following hundreds of developers, or at least nerds – about any of this.
Steve Barnes
Alexander S. Kunz