The Kids Online Safety Act S.1409 07/25/23
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Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced S.3663 last year, the Kids
Online Safety Act, and re-introduced it as S.1409 this year. In the
next couple days, it will get marked up in the senate, and continue on
its merry way.
The act is stupid, as most acts of congress are. The name of the act
is a manipulation of elemental protective feelings--as most act names
are. In reality, they could call this act and so many others, the Give
Government Control of Your Life Act. Government doesn't care about
children, or humans in general--the evidence of that truth is
depressingly overwhelming.
Really, I wouldn't have bothered writing about this act (check my
gopher hole, writing about this trash isn't a hobby of mine), if it
weren't for one disturbing paragraph:
"The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, Federal
Trade Commission, and the Secretary of Commerce, shall conduct a study
evaluating the most technologically feasible methods and options for
developing systems to verify age at the device or operating system
level." (Sec. 9a)
Emphasis on, "at the device or operating system level". To verify age
at the device and operating system level means to verify identity. To
verify identity at those levels means to restrict computing device
usage to identified individuals only.
You might wish to inform me that this is already the case in much of
the technology world, to some degree. Can you purchase, activate, and
use a phone, without your identity being known? Right now, your
identity is known through most of that process, but it is not verified
with every use. Can you purchase and activate your Windows PC without
verifying your identity? MSFT has been pushing for years to restrict
that possibility. Apple device without an Apple account? And yet, can
you daily use your device, without proving yourself?
Now, the act is only wanting to "study" these possibilities. Not
nefarious, right? Just a harmless congressional study, mandated by
law. But the fact that they're even willing to discuss such things
openly tells me a few things:
1. That the general public doesn't understand anything about
technology
2. That the general public doesn't understand anything about privacy
3. That politicians are well aware of the general public's ignorance
and are willing to exploit it
Yes, I know... these are not revelations. But the fact that we're
inching closer and closer to a world where every action, every webpage
read, every comment written, is attached to your identity, is a very
bad thing.
If you haven't read it, see the Lovely People web comic[1].
For S.1409, I've written my Senator (the panacea for the populous when
politics are running off the rails). And I'll vote, for what that's
worth. Is there more I could do?
[1]
https://www.hummingfluff.com/lovelypeoplecomic.html
