H.R.8250 - Parents Decide Act - United States Congress Age verification act

Cyber News
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Bill that is establishing the “Age Verification” process in the United States.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/text

To require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system, and for other purposes.

The interesting piece of the bill is here:

(a) Requirements.—An operating system provider, with respect to any operating system of such provider, shall carry out the following:

(1) Require any user of the operating system to provide the date of birth of the user in order to—

(A) set up an account on the operating system; and

(B) use the operating system.

(2) If the relevant user of the operating system is under 18 years of age, require a parent or legal guardian of the user to verify the date of birth of the user.

(3) Develop a system to allow an app developer to access any information as is necessary, collected by the operating system to carry out this section and any regulation promulgated under this section, to verify the date of birth of a user of an app of the app developer.

(b) Safe harbor.—An operating system provider may not be held liable for a violation of a provision of this Act or a regulation promulgated under this Act if the provider follows the requirements described in such provision or regulation.

… [snipped for length, link contains full text] …

(g) Definitions.—In this section:

(1) APP.—The term “app” means a software application or electronic service that may be run or directed by a user on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.

(2) APP DEVELOPER.—The term “app developer” means a person that owns or controls an app that is available for use in the United States.

(3) COMMISSION.—The term “Commission” means the Federal Trade Commission.

(4) OPERATING SYSTEM.—The term “operating system” means software that supports the basic functions of a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.

(5) OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER.—The term “operating system provider” means a person that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.

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There seems to be a link to reach out to your local rep, but LibreWolf didn’t like it.

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For me, the interesting part of this bill (as it is, in early draft form) is that the dirty work is shunted to regulations to be established by the Federal Trade Commission. This means that the law can be vague and administrative policy (meaning, subject to executive power) will both determine the nature of the requirements, and what constitutes a violation of 15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B).

It is also interesting that, in contrast with California’s law, the onus is entirely on the OS developer, not application developers.

We’ll see what happens but the correct response is to contact reps, not freak out.

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