The KIDS Act Would Force Platforms to Implement Invasive Age-Gating

• The proposed KIDS Act creates significant legal risks by requiring platforms to manage age-gating based on a "knows or should have known" standard for minors under 17.
• The legislation pressures services to implement invasive age-verification systems, including facial scans and government ID collection, compromising user privacy for everyone.
• Broad moderation requirements for topics like substance use and gambling threaten to suppress lawful speech, such as harm-reduction discussions or seeking support for addiction.
• Provisions targeting encrypted and ephemeral messaging create pressure to weaken privacy tools, as platforms struggle to moderate content they cannot inherently read.

Age Verification Pressures

• While the bill claims to avoid mandatory age verification, the "knows or should have known" liability standard forces platforms to preemptively identify users as teens to mitigate legal risk.
• Reliance on age-estimation software often results in higher error rates for people of color, individuals with disabilities, and trans or nonbinary users.
• Additional bills within the package, such as the SAFE BOTS Act and the SCREEN Act, reinforce the push for age identification to escape platform liability.

Policing Lawful Speech

• The updated KIDS Act demands that platforms enforce policies against broad categories of content, including legal discussions around drugs, alcohol, and gambling.
• The legal uncertainty discourages platforms from hosting nuanced conversations, such as teens seeking recovery advice, out of fear of regulatory scrutiny.

Impact on Private Communication

• The bill lacks clear guidance on how platforms can satisfy "duty to address" harms within encrypted messaging.
• By targeting ephemeral messages, the legislation threatens privacy tools that facilitate everyday digital interaction, forcing platforms to either restrict features or compromise end-to-end security.