Kids have First Amendment rights too, federal judge reminds state lawmakers

For a good overview of the issues with online age-check laws, see this series from the R Street Institute’s Shoshana Weissmann. She points out myriad downsides and unintended consequences, including the fact that these laws violate privacy, make people vulnerable to hackers and hostile governments, discourage data minimization (even when they sometimes purport to do the opposite), threaten our First Amendment right to anonymity, interfere with parental choice, risk criminalizing kids who try to outsmart them, and sometimes ban features—like algorithms—that actually make platforms more useful and safe.