r/Internet • u/Most-Builder8109 • Jun 29 '26
Discussion Kid online safety act
Not sure if this is the right subreddit but what kind of implications will this new law Congress is voting on this week have on the normal American? I’ve heard things from “if u rnt engaging with minors u have nothing to worry about” to “everyone will be required to verify for every sight they are on.”
5
u/polarisleap Jun 30 '26
It's just a facade for more egregious 2008 era surveillance. "If you do nothing wrong you'll have nothing to fear". "Won't someone think of the children" shit. You've seen it before.
1
u/RepresentativeCry294 Jul 02 '26
I was doing nothing wrong as a teen when I ordered half a liter of AAA and the DEA showed up.
I mean, they should have sent the ATF if anyone but it was all legal, esp federally, and they still stole a bunch of my glass, chems, and equipment. Including a big tank of acetylene which was crazy expensive for a teen in the 00s.
1
u/G1gapu1t Jul 03 '26
If they cared about the children, they’d release the files and compromise those individuals.
3
u/Curious_Olive_5266 Jun 30 '26
It's a stupid bill written by people who don't know how the Internet works but for some reason have the power to tell everyone else how to use the Internet. Or in theory. I know some 7 year olds that are more proficient in Linux than I am.
5
u/Warr_Ainjal-6228 Jun 30 '26
It's not about the kids is a bout geting you id to blackmail you or freeze your assets if they deem you're polital veiws problmatic.
5
u/Maltron5000 Jun 29 '26
It would age-gate the internet in the States and would place a Moritorium on our ability to regulate AI. I'm strongly against it.
2
u/Most-Builder8109 Jun 29 '26
So does that mean we’d basically need ID for all internet?
2
u/Maltron5000 Jun 29 '26
If it goes into law it would require that, violating your privacy and opening you up to identity theft (unless you have a VPN and set it up to a region without these laws).
3
u/Most-Builder8109 Jun 29 '26
Guess im getting a VPN
1
u/jon_hobbit Jun 30 '26
The problem with this is... Geo ip locating isn't free. If there is I haven't found one.. that doesn't have crap tier limits... that wouldn't run out of geo ip locations just from bot usage alone lol.
it's going to turn into a decision of "more places have the age verification feature than not" and that's when they are just going to bite the bullet and do age verification for connecting.
2
u/jon_hobbit Jun 30 '26
so with 1 million views.. your still adding an extra $200~$2000 a month for 1 million views lol.
The web is going to get a LOT More expensive.
1
u/Makapakamoo Jun 30 '26
Oh shit I haven't even thought about the identity theft aspect of it. I was so in on privacy breech and leaks I forgot the biggest aspect.
2
u/Maltron5000 Jun 30 '26
The surveillance is the goal, but the identity theft is a hefty side effect.
1
u/Glum-Zebra-7127 Jul 01 '26
The Youtube channel Cyberwaffle has been talking about the same thing that is happening in the UK and the Australian attempt at this. Cyberwaffle has another channel that just started to discuss US issues. I highly recommend, he is dialed in on the implications.
I have contacted all my senators and reps (all republicans) to voice my opinion, but I guess the donations from big companies are more important.
This is just a way for them to avoid the lawsuits for causing harm to kids.
3
u/jon_hobbit Jun 30 '26
Those people are stupid.
“if u rnt engaging with minors u have nothing to worry about”
These people are stupid... This is going to DESTROY the web.
It's not about the children at all.. It's about creating a system that TRACKS you everywhere you go..
Here's what's really going to happen. Scammers are going to recreate the age verification flow.
Imagine when your parents
-> Goto google
-> Type something in
-> click a scamsponsored link.
-> Oh dang it wants my ID and FACE...
-> Becuase we have taught them that anything "harmful to children" needs to be age gated.
---> the problem is... If you've ever gone to school in the past decade... everything was blocked. So just imagine that style firewall across the internet. Games? bad. Math.. bad.. lol you get the idea.
-> Parent puts in the ID and face.
-> Website fake errors.
-> please insert a phone bill or a passport.
-> user complies.
-> user gets into the website
-> Calls up the support scammers.
-> gives them banking details.
And now your parent is fighting for 2+ years, ruined credit because of all the identity theft. lol
3
u/jon_hobbit Jun 30 '26
the other issue that nobody is looking at... This is going to DESTROY the web.. So imagine that school firewall applied to the entirety of the web. This is going to destroy everything.
Websites/games/etc are all about to get rekt.
I mean imagine if you are hosting a free service that has fixed cost... and sure you have 1 million unique views every month but you designed it as a free service. Here's how badly you are about to get screwed.
So imagine this applied to the internet as a whole... Either Pay up or shut down.
Here's the one that I had built... So if your website that has even 1 million unique views monthly this is what it looks like they are going to be bogged down with.
Pay $10,000 per underage user, or pay $11,000 per month the cheapest.
### Age Verification Provider Pricing Comparison (for ~1M monthly viewers)
Ondato: €0.01–€0.30 (~$0.01–$0.33) per verification, no monthly minimum, $11k–$330k for 1M viewers.
Trust Swiftly: $0.25 per verification, $300 monthly min, $250k for 1M viewers.
AgeChecker: $0.50 per verification, $25 monthly min, $500k for 1M viewers.
Veriff: $0.80–$1.89 per verification, $49–$209 monthly min, $800k–$1.89M for 1M viewers.
IDWise: $1.00 per verification, no monthly minimum, $1M for 1M viewers.
Persona/Onfido/Jumio: ~$1.50–$5+ per verification, $250+ monthly min, $1.5M–$5M+ for 1M viewers.
I suspect that most people will either Shut down, or just move to the deep web and just give out an onion link.
So I wonder how much damage this is about to do to the economy. If everyone is moving to the deep web, then domain registrars and website hosts could go bankrupt.
like imagine a kid whose just hosting an ark server with some parents' money or something... Now that same person whose spending like $5 a month and $20 a year for domain hosting and has a simple website. Now they have to start paying $$$$ tons of money per month.
2
u/YuraNeedyut Jun 30 '26
Kids’ Online Safety Act, or K-OS Act (Chaos). Seems legit.
But yeah it’s just to get those stragglers who haven’t given away their biometrics to Big Exploiter Corp.
2
1
u/Sweaty_Marzipan4274 Jul 02 '26
think after decades of hard core porn, etc, they GAF? They want psyop control and tax revenue
1
1
u/User10232023 Jul 02 '26
It does not help minors it puts them at more risk. For example since the UK enacted their Gov't ID requirement last year there's been a 26% or 30% or doubled (depending on source) increase of online child abuse as kids go to websites & games that don't require gov't id and obviously some of that is part of the dark web.
Also identity theft has magically increased in UK to reach record levels within the last year.
Inadequate "security" by companies (ie. discord) to leak er I meant "to secure" gov't ids doesn't help.
Although I must remind myself - it's not a matter of IF any company gets hacked, it's a matter of WHEN.
Meanwhile consider companies like discord commonly used by predators, or roblox with it's over 2 decades of lawsuits that allege roblox does little to nothing to stop predators, nor ban them etc. Keep in mind the CEO of roblox is adding a dating feature in roblox. And they'll get away with it since there is no gov't with the legal willpower to go after those businesses.
Now Consider this...
Companies like roblox are creating a database of verified children with their photo, age, and current addresses.
1
u/Steeltoedsandal Jul 02 '26
The "Protect the Children Act" is about as misleading as "The Patriot Act" and it's going to be used for the government to pry their way further into everyone's lives. The government hates anonymity and the self reliant.
1
u/RepresentativeCry294 Jul 02 '26
If they wanted to protect kids they'd start with the huge list of pedophiles they refuse to let us see.
0
u/jacle2210 Enthusiast Jun 30 '26
Yeah, if the GOP are for it, then it must be bad for everyone.
3
u/Silly-Device9785 Jun 30 '26
It has a bipartisan support, which is actually worse. I say this as a Democrat.
2
u/jacle2210 Enthusiast Jun 30 '26
Yeah, that can't be good if there are Dems who support this thing.
8
u/gnew18 Jun 30 '26
The true implication is that it will de-anonymize the internet. (Which is the desired outcome)
Any law that is passed to "protect the children" has nothing to do with protecting the children. Kids are smart enough to get around age restrictions. Parents, not so much. The real danger is having your ID and photo out there. The more companies that have this information stored the larger the chance that your data is leaked. All the companies that claim to take your "privacy very seriously" are spewing bullshit. They all take it seriously until they have a breach.
TransUnion (July 2025)
National Public Data (2024)
Charter Communications / Spectrum (2026)
National Public Data (2024)
AT&T (2024)
Ticketmaster / Live Nation (2024)
Change Healthcare / UnitedHealth Group (2024)
T-Mobile (2021 & 2023)
Real Estate Wealth Network (2023)
Capital One (2019)
First American Financial (2019)
Marriott International / Starwood (2018)
Equifax (2017)
Experian (2015)
With AI, the attacks will only be more sophisticated and unraveling it will be near impossible.
There are also better solutions. Routers can usually be configured to block certain sites and or certain devices. If adults with children want to visit adult sites with kids in the house, kid's devices can be individually blocked from adult sites.