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