If passed, the bill would apply across the U.S., unlike the state-level laws already around.

From the press release [my emphasis]:

Require operating system developers like Apple and Google to verify users’ ages when setting up a new device, rather than relying on self-reported ages.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/25834609

The U.S. has been quietly building up a set of state-level laws that push operating system providers into the age verification plague.

California’s AB 1043, signed in October 2025, requires OS providers to collect age data at account setup and pipe it to apps through a real-time API. It kicks in on January 1, 2027.

Colorado is working on something nearly identical. SB26-051 (which we covered when it was still a proposal) passed the state Senate 28-7 on March 3, 2026, and is now waiting on a House vote to become law there too.

However, these are just state-level laws. A new federal bill, H.R.8250, introduced on April 13, 2026, by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, with Rep. Elise M. Stefanik signing on as cosponsor, has us intrigued.

  • badgermurphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    18 hours ago

    Its true that they have gotten better at their “simmer tactics”, as you put it, but they have also let a lot of unrelenting blowhards into their ranks that have been so far impossible for them to stifle and are really cramping their style.

    I’ve often felt that while history seems doomed to its cyclical nature, we have lived straddling two ages in human history. I am of course not at all sure how the Information Age will effect history unfolding this time and into the future, but I think it simply has to have some effect that has never before been seen prior, which is scary, but also fascinating and exciting.

    One glimmer of hope I see already is the xenophobic, nationalist nature of these strongman autocrat types that cover the pages of history books does not play well at all anywhere but at home. Every time I see one of these infamous goons try to reach across the national boundary to help a fellow authoritarian gain or consolidate power, presumably in an effort to build up a new “Axis”, it is a kiss of death. In the past, it was much easier for these things to happen away from the public eye, and for the grotesqueness of the foreign autocrat to be largely unknown at home, but now the smoky back room is being live streamed around the globe, and the foreign autocrat has a billion views on social media.

    Maybe the revolution be televised after all!

    • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      17 hours ago

      Sidenote, I really know what you mean about “straddling two ages”, what a bizarre and like…ineffably rare experience it’s been. A bit older than we, and computers (modern communication) are just a strange accessory to life - it’s mostly been lived IRL. Anything else must be imagined, and it isn’t easy, usually isn’t done very well. A bit younger than we, and there has never been a strictly IRL part of life. The slow way, that every other human before lived and died under. And so anything else must be imagined, and it isn’t done very well.

      Utterly strange to one day notice this and recognize myself as among the small group of folks who really thoroughly experienced both. What a strange ride. Lucky, in its way, sincerely.

      Sidenote aside, I don’t share your optimism regarding the rejection / degree of appeal for fascism and its companions, abroad. At all. Think I’ll leave it there, out of simple courtesy, and from having grown bored of my own words on the subject. Cheers friend.