The KIDS Act Just Passed the House. Here's Why You Should Be Worried.

Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act by a vote of 267 to 117. The bill is now heading to the Senate, and if you care about privacy, free speech, or the actual safety of children in this country, you need to pay attention to what's in it.

I know. The name sounds great. Nobody wants kids harmed online. That emotional reaction is exactly what Congress is counting on to push this through without scrutiny.

But when the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, Fight for the Future, and dozens of civil rights organizations are all raising alarms about the same bill, it's worth asking: what does this legislation actually do?

It Forces Age Verification on Everyone

The KIDS Act claims it doesn't require age verification. The bill even includes a disclaimer saying so. But here's the catch: the law holds platforms liable if they "knew or should have known" a user was a minor. That's a legal standard called negligence, and it means that if a platform gets it wrong, they can be sued after the fact.

So what are companies going to do? They're going to verify everyone's age, because that's the only way to protect themselves from liability. That means you, an adult, will be handing over your driver's license, your passport, or submitting to a facial recognition scan just to use the internet.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been clear about this: the bill's disclaimer that age verification isn't required is hollow when the rest of the legislation creates enormous legal pressure to implement it.

And those facial age estimation systems? They don't work equally for everyone. Studies have shown they fail more frequently for people of color, people with disabilities, and trans and nonbinary people. The people already most targeted by this political environment are the ones most likely to be wrongly locked out of online spaces.

Approximately 15 million adult U.S. citizens don't have a driver's license. About 2.6 million have no government issued photo ID at all. This bill would effectively lock them out of the internet.

It Gives the Government Power Over Online Speech

The KIDS Act empowers the government to dictate what content is considered "harmful" for young people. That might sound reasonable in the abstract, but think about who is making those decisions right now.

There are over 470 anti LGBTQ bills moving through state legislatures across the country. Government agencies are actively removing references to transgender people from federal websites. In this environment, handing the government a tool to decide what young people can and cannot see online is not protection. It is a weapon.

Brookings Institution has documented how children's online safety laws disproportionately harm LGBTQ+ youth. After FOSTA/SESTA passed in 2018, platforms cracked down on any online spaces that included discussions of sexuality, whether sex trafficking was involved or not. The same pattern will repeat here.

For queer kids in rural communities, and we have a lot of them here in North Georgia, the internet isn't a luxury. It's a lifeline. It's where they find mental health resources, peer support, and community when none of that exists in their physical world. The KIDS Act puts that lifeline at risk.

It Comes for Your Private Messages

Buried in the KIDS Act are new rules about private and encrypted messaging. The bill creates requirements around direct messaging features that depend on platforms knowing whether a user is a minor. The result, as the EFF puts it, is "more age checks, more restrictions, and less privacy online."

Your private conversations. Subject to new government oversight and platform policing. In a country where the administration has already demonstrated its willingness to surveil, detain, and deport people based on their digital footprints, this should terrify you.

Now Let's Talk About What Congress Won't Do

We have the Epstein files. We have names. We have flight logs. We have documented connections between some of the most powerful people on the planet and the systematic exploitation of children.

Nobody has gone to jail.

Congress managed to fast track a massive surveillance bill through the House in a matter of days, but somehow cannot muster the political will to hold a single powerful person accountable for the actual, documented abuse of actual children.

If this were really about protecting kids, they would be prosecuting the people in those files. They would be fully funding child protective services, which are chronically underfunded in nearly every state. They would be investing in public schools, mental health services, and the social safety net programs that actually prevent child exploitation and abuse.

Instead, they are building an infrastructure of digital surveillance and censorship that will be used to monitor, control, and silence all of us. And they're slapping a cute name on it so you won't ask questions.

What You Can Do Right Now

The KIDS Act now moves to the Senate, where key senators have already raised concerns about the bill's provisions. This is the moment to make your voice heard.

Call your senators this week. Here is exactly what to say:

"I'm calling to urge Senator [NAME] to oppose the KIDS Act as passed by the House. This bill effectively mandates age verification for all internet users, threatens encrypted communications, and creates a framework for government directed content censorship. These provisions endanger the privacy and free speech rights of every American, and disproportionately harm communities of color, disabled people, and LGBTQ+ youth. I urge the Senator to reject this bill and pursue child safety legislation that does not require mass surveillance of all internet users."

Find your senators and their phone numbers: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

For Georgia residents:

• Senator Jon Ossoff: (202) 224-3521

• Senator Raphael Warnock: (202) 224-3643

Read the EFF's full analysis of the KIDS Act: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/kids-act-would-require-age-checks-get-online

Read the Brookings analysis on how online safety laws harm LGBTQ+ youth: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/childrens-online-safety-laws-are-failing-lgbtq-youth/

The Bottom Line

Protecting children online is a real and important goal. But the KIDS Act doesn't do that. It builds a surveillance system that affects every person who uses the internet, hands the government new power over what we can say and see online, threatens encrypted private communications, and disproportionately harms the most vulnerable communities in this country.

Meanwhile, the people with actual power who have actually harmed actual children walk free.

Don't let the name fool you. Read the bill. Make the call. Share this post. And demand that Congress pursue real solutions that protect children without sacrificing all of our rights in the process.