Smile, You’re Online! Big Brother Is Watching: 2+2=Zero Privacy

I give the fight up; let there be an end, a privacy, an obscure nook for me. I want to be forgotten even by God.

- Robert Browning, Paracelsus (1835)

Privacy advocates all over are very concerned about the future of the internet.
Last year I talked about Michigan House Bill 4938, which would have made it illegal to use a VPN as well as to view adult content and even be transgender on the internet.
Fortunately that bill was defeated, but it is just one of many similar bills that have been proposed in various states across the country.

There are not many people that would disagree that the internet can be a very unsafe space for children and that we should do more to protect kids online. However the problem is that these bills are often very broad and vague, and they can have unintended consequences for adults who are just trying to use the internet for legitimate purposes.

Furthermore these bills often, by design, have unintended(?) consequences for people who work in fields where protecting their privacy & identity is important, such as journalists, cyber security researchers, and activists. Some of the more recent bills that have been introduced are no different in that regard.

Bills to Watch out for in 2026

Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)

KOSA is a bill which would require platforms to exercise a "duty of care" to mitigate harms to minors and require age verification or content filtering.
According to EFF, KOSA would likely lead to age-verification systems that require all users to verify their age, which can undermine anonymity online. The law could also push platforms to restrict lawful speech to avoid liability and give regulators power to pressure companies to remove content.
  Incresed data collection by platforms also exposes users to increased risks to having their personal information exposed as we've noticed with recent Discord breaches which have allowed hackers to seize ID verification data from the platform including the identities of minors!

Protecting Kids on Social Media Act

This bill would ban children under the age of 13 from using social media which, in itself, isn't that bad.
However this bill would introduce privacy invasive age verification and could lead to a national digital ID infrastructure for internet access which would be a significant threat to anonymous internet use!

STOP CSAM Act

This bill would expand legal liability for platofrms regarding child-exploitation material.
While getting rid of exploitation material is great and all this bill would require platforms to scan private messages to avoid liability even when those messages are end-to-end encrypted.
What this means is that platforms could be forced to remove security measures meant to protect user privacy in order to comply with the law which would put anyone who relies on that privacy at risk.
Another bill which carries similar consequence to user privacy is the EARN IT Act which removes legal protections from companies which refuse to impliment monitoring even if it would break user privacy. Once again, this has huge impacts on privacy in regards to protecting journalists, whisleblowers/activists, and cyber security professionals.

CALEA Expansion Proposals (Internet Wiretap Backdoors)

This would expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act to require communication services to provide built-in interception capabilities (backdoors).
The EFF warns that such proposals would reequire companies to build backdoors into digital communications systems undermining privacy and security.

Secure Data Act

The Secure Data Act is the only pro-privacy bill that I could find which actually prohibits governemnt from requiring companies to add backdoors to encryption.
The EFF supports this bill because "no agency may mandate" altering products to enable surveillance which would strengthen encryption protections.

Key Themes

All of these proposed bills, while promising to protect children online, share common themes which attack internet privacy by requiring identity verification to access websites, create centralized identity databases, expose the surface area of attack to gain access to PII, and require message scanning or other technologies to undermine encryption and break user privacy features.

Bill	Level	Main Issue	Status (2026)	Privacy/Encryption Impact	Source
Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)	Federal	Platform duty-of-care for minors; may require age verification	Pending / Not passed	Requires age verification; threatens anonymity online	EFF
STOP CSAM Act	Federal	Platform liability for child-abuse content	Pending	Could pressure companies to weaken encryption or monitor messages	EFF
EARN IT Act	Federal	Child-safety liability framework affecting encrypted messaging	Pending / Reintroduced	Threatens end-to-end encryption by forcing message scanning	EFF
Kids Off Social Media Act	Federal	Age limits and algorithm restrictions for minors	Pending	Requires identity verification; reduces anonymity for teens	Wikipedia
Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act	Federal	Expanded privacy protections for minors	Passed Senate; not enacted yet	Primarily protective, may still require age verification	TechPolicy
Security and Freedom Enhancement Act	Federal	Limits warrantless surveillance under FISA §702	Pending	Strengthens privacy; limits government surveillance	Brennan Center
Take It Down Act	Federal	Removal of AI-generated non-consensual imagery	Passed (2025)	Neutral on encryption; focuses on content removal	Time
SB 868 (Florida)	State	Law enforcement access to encrypted messages of minors with warrant	Passed state senate / pending final resolution	Requires decryption mechanisms; weakens end-to-end security	Wikipedia
Virginia Senate Bill 854	State	Limits social-media use by minors	Passed (2025)	Privacy-neutral; enforces time restrictions	Wikipedia
HB 24-1136 (Colorado)	State	Youth warnings and behavioral nudges	Passed (2024)	Privacy-neutral; mainly informational nudges	Wikipedia