House Resolution 1274, also known as the Protect Our Children Act, was introduced just over a year ago on February 12th, 2025. This cleverly named bill has gained bipartisan support– it appears definitionally good. No politician wants to vote against a bill that is guaranteeing online safety for children, especially in an era when online safety and security is a growing concern.
In reality, however, this bill does the opposite. It removes all anonymity from online presences, encourages anti-competitive activities in the tech sphere, and is a huge step towards global technofacism.
The goal of this bill, as advertised, is to prevent children from accessing ‘mature content’ on social media platforms. It places the responsibility for this protection on tech companies, rather than parents. If this bill is passed, platforms will be fined if they are found to allow children full access on the site.
How do they plan on enforcing this? Facial scans and ID verification. Australia has already implemented a full social media ban for those under age 16, and the EU is contemplating similar regulations. Because of this, we know how these verification structures will work and their many shortcomings.
Most social media platforms do not have the resources or desire to construct their own verification platform, so they will outsource this activity to third-party identity verification companies. Beyond simply losing online anonymity, which is a huge risk for many people and communities, these platforms are highly prone to data leaks. One of these platforms, AU10TIX, used by TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and PayPal, has already experienced a huge data leak releasing the drivers’ licenses and facial scans of countless users to hackers.
Despite the fact that there is no federally passed legislation requiring ID verification in the United States yet, some companies have elected to move forward with these requirements anyways. Discord, a popular online communication platform frequently used by online gaming communities, recently announced that every account on the site would be defaulted to a ‘teen’ account unless they provided ID verification of their age. This would limit users from being active in various servers, and limit the functionality of the account, demanding that users give their IDs or facial scans to the company for continued use.
This has provoked outrage for obvious reasons, as anonymity is highly valuable online. The use of facial recognition by governments is a terrifying and unfortunately realistic concept. In the US, the American Immigration Council reported that the Department of Homeland Security spent over $35 million on AI-powered facial recognition services to track immigrants. The largest proportion of this money went to Peter Thiel’s Palantir, a company well known for its misuse of customer data and primarily employed by government agencies to track citizens. By adding facial recognition or ID verification to social media, an individual’s online activities could be easily linked to the already huge amount of information held by data mining companies.
Indiana has already passed an age-verification law, SB 17, to protect children from “material harmful to minors.” This bill was passed quickly and quietly, but its vague wording and expectations risk huge violations for Hoosiers. The descriptor “harmful to minors” is highly open to interpretation and has the potential to eliminate resources for LGBTQ+ communities, sexual education, and healthcare depending on how different states actualize the law. It has also led to some sites affected by the ID requirements, such as PornHub, to entirely ban use of the platform in states that require ID verification. Regardless of one’s perspective on the validity of porn sites, eliminating only the regulated and relatively trustworthy sites leads to greater sexual exploitation in the porn industry as a whole. Additionally, this ban presents risks to users who seek out similar content on less trustworthy sites, creating a greater potential for hacking and data leaks, as stated in a response by PornHub.
The Protect Our Children Act is a mechanism of technofascism marketed as a movement to increase online safety. In reality, these regulations are hugely detrimental, especially to those who rely on their online anonymity for safety and support. Regulating the internet in this manner is an undeniable step towards the internet becoming an instrument of government surveillance and a massive infringement on individual liberties.
To learn more about these bills (including their anti-competitive nature) or to contact your representatives about this issue please access this link: Bad Internet Bills.