ONLINE ID CHECKS
WILL RUIN
THE INTERNET

Tell your lawmakers: we need common-sense, privacy forward solutions, NOT ID checks for the internet!

Across the country, lawmakers are passing bills that require everyone to submit to age checks to access websites. Already, people in Louisiana, Indiana, and Virginia must provide government ID to access certain apps and websites. Imagine opening up your social media of choice for a casual scroll and the app demands to scan your face. Or being asked to upload your government ID just to access an article or recipe. This censorship movement won’t rest until online ID checks wall off huge sections of the Internet, with the government as the sole gatekeeper. Information freedom no more.

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How ID Checks Will Work

STATES WITH ID CHECK LAWS:

CREATOR TOOLKIT

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WHY SHOULD I CARE?

We all want the internet to be a safer place. But ID checks won’t make us safer, no matter who you are, how old you are, or what you’re doing online. In order to verify someone’s identity or age, websites collect and store your data, often through third party companies that are hackable and expose people to identity and data theft. Some companies are selling ID verification tools that use facial recognition or other biometric scans, which are inaccurate, discriminate against women and people of color, and can be abused by law enforcement.

Big Tech has already made the internet worse: it’s hard to find information or see what your friends are posting online amidst the sea of advertisements and promoted content. Now, proliferation of age-gating practices could make it even harder to access resources that are increasingly under political attack, like sex education, abortion healthcare information, and LGBTQ online communities . The data shows that when presented with age verification mechanisms, people are more likely to just give up instead of entering sensitive information, which they are rightfully mistrustful of.

On top of these risks, age checks create obstacles for marginalized people looking for vital resources and community online. A journalist should be able to do research without leaving a paper trail. A queer person or parent of a trans kid should be able to look up information about sexuality or gender affirming healthcare without fear of a search being tied to their identity. A pregnant person in a state with an abortion ban should be able to look up abortion funds without being surveilled. Age checks interrupt the free flow of information and our right to free speech online. You should be able to interact with your online communities, fandom, friends, the news, and more without putting your sensitive information into a database where you have no control over your data and how it can be used against you.

No matter what you care about, ID checks cause more harm than good.

UKOSA Highlights the Threat of Online ID Checks

The United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act (UKOSA) came into effect in July 2025, requiring platforms and websites to verify the age of users before allowing them to access vaguely defined “adult content.” The rollout was a disaster. Facing massive fines for failure to comply, many websites chose to shutdown or block access from the UK. Platforms and websites that did comply placed ID checks between users and vast swaths of content. Predictably, LGBTQ+ content was targeted, but users also reported age gates in many seemingly random communities, like the subreddit dedicated to critiquing flag design. Bills like KOSA would help bring the harmful farce of online ID checks to the rest of the world.

Digital IDs Will Make Online ID Checks Worse

Proponents of Digital IDs assure that they’ll provide great convenience, but they would actually be terribly powerful surveillance tools. Many states have launched, or are planning on launching, digital ID programs. For now, these systems are offered in addition to physical IDs, but could be made mandatory for the purpose of online ID checking and for accessing other services. Digital IDs can be used to track and surveil users by monitoring which websites or stores are sending requests to the government to verify your identity. For example, states with abortion bans could use digital IDs to track people seeking reproductive healthcare in other states. The threat of surveillance and censorship, posed by online ID checks, is only made worse by Digital IDs.

Do you want to get involved in resisting the spread of digital IDs? Consider hosting a movie night with Surveillance Resistance Labs’ toolkit and check out these additional resources to learn more!

SO HOW DO WE MAKE THE INTERNET SAFER?

Make no mistake: the current state of things is harmful, to everyone, not just kids. Tech companies are collecting our data to power their exploitative and oppressive algorithms and making the internet worse with surveillance, censorship, and endless targeted advertising. But the solution is cracking down on their greedy surveillance capitalist business model, not restricting speech and kicking kids offline. We should be working on comprehensive privacy legislation that prioritizes people at the margins, antitrust legislation to actually regulate these giant corporations, and the algorithmic justice legislation that digital rights experts have been calling for.

Tell your lawmakers to reject any legislation that requires websites to use government ID or AI biometric technology to limit users or access.

am i gay?

States across the country are passing or considering laws that would require everyone to submit to ID checks to access websites. These laws would require websites that already collect our data to collect even more. Lawmakers shouldn’t be giving exploitative tech companies even more intrusive access to our data, and they shouldn’t be limiting people’s ability to access information and community online.

am i pregnant?

States across the country are passing or considering laws that would require everyone to submit to ID checks to access websites. These laws would require websites that already collect our data to collect even more. Lawmakers shouldn’t be giving exploitative tech companies even more intrusive access to our data, and they shouldn’t be limiting people’s ability to access information and community online.

Check out what users and creators are saying about YouTube’s ID checks!

Supporters

STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT

The internet is not improved by treating its users like criminal suspects and our lives as opportunities for corporate profit. Legislators defunding education to invest in wars, police, prisons, borders, and constant surveillance should think hard before claiming to be acting on behalf of children.

RootsAction.org

Online ID checks don’t make the internet safer — they just violate privacy and make it harder to use. As governments push surveillance and censorship, the ability to remain anonymous becomes more vital for their freedom. Taking that away will lead to a decidedly unfree society.

Yale Privacy Lab

ID checks endanger people by forcing them to hand over sensitive data that inevitably ends up in the hands of malicious cybercriminals and reckless police. This is a direct threat to privacy, safety, and free speech.

Yale Privacy Lab

These bills don’t just create barriers to the internet, they enable censorship. By restricting access based on vague notions of what’s ‘harmful to minors,’ lawmakers risk cutting young people off from lifesaving information. Privacy on the internet is a critical safeguard against these growing threats to autonomy and free expression.

Yale Privacy Lab

Online ID check policies aren’t misguided — they’re a deliberate attack on free speech, intentionally set up to keep both adults and minors from getting the essential sex education we need to live free and healthy lives.

EducateUS

ID verification laws don’t protect children—they erode privacy, stifle free expression, and exclude the most vulnerable from online spaces. We represent members of marginalized communities—including LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, and activists—who are already struggling against deplatforming and censorship. These laws will only make it worse, forcing people to trade their anonymity for access to vital information and community support. Lawmakers must reject these invasive policies and instead fight for real digital rights: privacy, accessibility, and freedom of expression for all.

Center for Online Safety and Liberty

The ability to go online, ask questions, and get answers anonymously must be protected. Especially as people seek gender-affirming and reproductive healthcare that is being banned and even criminalized across the country, having to show ID to access the internet is more dangerous than ever. Children and adults have the right to find out answers to sensitive questions without fear of embarrassment, prosecution, or parental abuse.

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project

Online ID checking bills are yet another tool in the explicitly and increasingly fascist government efforts to suppress speech, target activists, and exert control over private businesses and individuals. These laws make it possible for the US government to coerce independent businesses to give up information about its users or risk having the full force of the government come down on them. These laws are not about protecting children, as they purport to do. If the government is serious about protecting children, it would pass robust data privacy laws for all internet users, and limit private business targeting advertisements to children.

National Lawyers Guild

Online ID checks are backwards in every sense: they punish individuals, instead of tech companies and site owners; they restrict access to information, which can lead people to even more unregulated corners of the internet; and they purport to protect kids, while infringing on their right to privacy and information. Online spaces can be crucial resources for youth, especially those who face barriers to accessing information offline, including girls, trans youth, rural youth searching for information about their health and bodies. These individuals would be disproportionately impacted by online ID check laws, at a time when their rights are already under attack. Lawmakers have an obligation to be critical, nuanced, and strategic about our approach to online safety so as not to cause further harm. These bills would certainly cause further harm.

UltraViolet Action

ONLINE ID CHECKS WILL RUIN THE INTERNET

Thanks for signing the petition!

How ID Checks Will Work

STATES WITH ID CHECK LAWS:

CREATOR TOOLKIT

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

UKOSA Highlights the Threat of Online ID Checks

Digital IDs Will Make Online ID Checks Worse

SO HOW DO WE MAKE THE INTERNET SAFER?

am i gay?

am i pregnant?

Check out what users and creators are saying about YouTube’s ID checks!

Supporters

STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT

ONLINE ID CHECKS
WILL RUIN
THE INTERNET