Online ID Checks Will Ruin the Internet: 90 Reproductive Rights, LGBTQ, Civil Rights Groups Speak Up Against Widespread Age Verification Bills

This letter was led and organized by Fight for the Future, which is organizing actions against invasive ID checks through stoponlineIDchecks.org.

A broad coalition of organizations dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, rights for youth, privacy, and freedom of speech have issued a letter to US lawmakers warning that online ID check bills, which would mandate highly privacy-invasive age verification through third party companies, would threaten freedom of information, the very usability of the internet, and sacrifice digital privacy, along with sacrificing the young people these laws claim to protect. 

“Many of these bills give lawmakers dangerously broad leeway in deciding which websites should be restricted as “harmful to minors,” these organizations write. “With gender-affirming healthcare and abortion access under threat, and young people increasingly electrified around political action, ID check laws threaten young and marginalized people who would be cut off from access to lifesaving information and vital advocacy. After all, who’s to say that learning about the climate crisis or gun violence isn’t ‘harmful to minors?’ As with everything from sex education to harm reduction, young people, especially marginalized youth, are better equipped, live longer, and do better when they have access to information and resources.”

You can read the full letter, as well as find the full list of signatories, here: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2025-03-06-new-letter-90-civil-rights-and-privacy-organizations-condemn-id-checking-bills-citing-effectiveness-censorship-and-privacy-concerns/

“We talk constantly in this country, at every level of government, about how to protect kids: a good goal, with very little consensus on what that actually looks like,” said Sarah Philips, campaigner at Fight for the Future. “I find it shocking and disheartening that for so many lawmakers, protecting kids means cutting off the most marginalized kids from information and communities that could be a lifeline for them. These online ID check laws not only don’t protect children, they venture into killing anonymity for everybody on the internet. In order to verify that I myself am not a child, submitting to a face scan, an upload of my government ID, or another biometric check in order to get online is a future that would obliterate anonymity and bolster the worst kinds of surveillance and censorship we’re already fighting in this country. I work with LGBTQ youth everyday who depend on online communities to feel safe, loved, and connected. What they want more than anything is a livable future: a world free from censorship, surveillance, and war, where they can depend on having access to housing, healthcare, and a planet that’s not on fire. Is this all we have to offer them?” 

“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,” said Ría Thompson-Washington, President of National Lawyers Guild. “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.”

“The internet is not improved by treating its users like criminal suspects and our lives as opportunities for corporate profit,” said David Swanson, campaign coordinator at RootsAction.org. “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.”

“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,” said Sean O’Brien, founder of 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. 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.”

“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,” said Jaclyn Friedman, Executive Director at EducateUS.

“ID verification laws don’t protect children—they erode privacy, stifle free expression, and exclude the most vulnerable from online spaces,” said Jeremy Malcolm, Chair of Center for Online Safety and Liberty. “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.”

“The ability to go online, ask questions, and get answers anonymously must be protected,” said David Siffert, Legal Director of Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “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.”