Y'all if you're American please email your politicians and senators against the parents decide act. I'm fucking begging because we're reaching a tipping point.
Quick and easy link to both find your congressmen/women and giving you a quick and easy way to copy / paste the message into it. You want to oppose. It's an act that will demand that all major OS makers integrate a direct forced age verification control into all OS.
I received a comment on this that I figured would be very helpful- it's a template for communicating with your representatives. Be sure to use it for reference
Dear Representative [Name],
I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented risks to digital privacy and security.
Specifically, I am alarmed by:
SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices.
SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection.
This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and vote NO on H.R. 8250.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Zip Code]
This is a hell that us down under in Australia are already living in, and it’s not even effective at what it claims to do in protecting children.
Given that, in the wake of this mandatory identification policy, my country seems to be moving to hand over its citizens biometric data, like fingerprints, Face ID files, and identification documents, over to the USA and to ICE to maintain the visa free travel (ESTA) we have, I strongly urge any US resident to send these emails, or make calls.
But if you can’t do that, the most powerful thing you can do is spread the word. Tell your friends, family, coworkers, anyone who can help.
My reach will likely be small, and so I don’t know if this will mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot stand to see this tracking happen to another population as it did to mine.
And if you think it won’t affect you, it will. All anonymity goes out the window when your accounts can be linked via your personal ID
I wish you all luck in preventing this act from going through.
I called my representative and left a voice message!
Here’s the 5calls script to make it easy! https://5calls.org/issue/age-verification-internet-privacy/
Various federal and state bills have been introduced to require age verification for internet platforms. While these bills’ purported purpos
Linkified the above url.
I added to the template for mine. My Congressman is a Republican, so on the off chance someone did read the message in full, I added more (true!) points about the economic damage this will cause and the governmental overreach of the law.
I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented and unnecessary risks to digital privacy and security. It mandates compliance with regulations that the government simply does not have the expertise to adequately create, let alone monitor. Specifically, I am alarmed by: SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches. Since software architecture is so interconnected, there is simply no way to implement this regulation without causing billions upon billions of dollars of damage to our digital infrastructure, in a time when that infrastructure may be our most important economic asset. SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection. Bad actors, fraudsters, and digital spies could access this information with no way for citizens to protect themselves, merely by imitating honest developers. The specifics of its implementation by various private software companies will not be universally standardized due to how software development functions, such that the verification data will not be helpful for legitimate developers and will only be useful for bad actors. This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. Software development is an extremely complex and ever-changing field and big government simply is not capable of understanding it well enough to pass effective laws about it. Much like the Endangered Species Act infringed on the rights of American property owners with the intent of protecting endangered animals and only ended up getting those animals killed faster, this bill will infringe on our rights as citizens, inhibit the ability of businesses to respond to market conditions, and will not protect a single child from exploitation. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and the strength of America's economy and vote NO on H.R. 8250.
