Debate Over Kids Online Safety Act and Age-Verification Requirements for Minors
Policymakers in multiple jurisdictions are advancing child online safety rules that would restrict minors’ access to social media, “addictive” product features, and certain content (including pornography), increasing pressure on platforms to implement age assurance/age verification to determine users’ ages before allowing access. The Lawfare analysis highlights that while protecting children online is a widely shared goal, enforcing age-based restrictions at scale effectively requires collecting and validating age signals for all users—raising significant implementation, privacy, and governance challenges as governments consider measures such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the Kids Off Social Media Act, and the App Store Accountability Act.
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