For Immediate Release
S.T.O.P. Report Shows Internet Age Surveillance Censors LGBTQ+ Youth
(New York, NY, 4/3/2024) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, released Age Of Surveillance: Conservative Age Surveillance Of LGBTQ+ Youth, a report detailing the harms of internet age-verification laws on LGBTQ+ children and teens. While protection of children is always a laudable objective, far-right lawmakers have manipulated this narrative to censor LGBTQ+ resources online, dramatically reshaping access to internet content in their states. The report shows that many liberal lawmakers are increasingly promoting similar legislation, strengthening the movement for federal internet age-verification laws and unintentionally affirming conservative attacks on LGBTQ+ youth.
SEE: S.T.O.P. Report - Age Of Surveillance: Conservative Age Surveillance Of LGBTQ+ Youth
https://www.stopspying.org/age-of-surveillance
“Internet age-verification laws are sold as a way to protect children, but they do just the opposite by harming LGBTQ+ youth,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “These laws threaten to turn the open internet into a tool of authoritarian censorship, preventing LGBTQ+ communities from accessing essential resources online. Even when promoted by progressive lawmakers, there is simply no viable let alone privacy-preserving way to check a user’s age online. Instead of pushing faulty tech to track every user’s age and identity, lawmakers must push for privacy protections for every American without undermining the autonomy of the open internet.”
Key Findings Include:
- As rightwing lawmakers attack abortion and gender-affirming care post-Dobbs, the American internet is at an inflection point as a new wave of laws seeks to dramatically expand government surveillance of everything from social media to libraries;
- Internet age-verification laws have been promoted as a way to “protect children” from “grooming,” the false narrative that LGBTQ+ adults and content are somehow trying to groom children to engage in sexual activity;
- Strict age-verification laws in Utah and Louisiana are emblematic of this broader national movement and are being mirrored in states across the country;
- Age verification technologies have proven ineffective, inequitable, and ripe for abuse, potentially using biometric scans, digital IDs, or other methods that threaten user privacy and expand surveillance;
- Also driven by anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, one of the leading internet age-gaiting bills in Congress is the Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”), which would grant regulators sweeping new powers to protect younger internet users from “harmful material,” including provisions that could undermine encryption and anonymity safeguards;
- The push for expanded age gating of the internet has been taken up by Democratic and even progressive lawmakers, including New York’s S7694 Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, dubbed the “Unsafe For Kids Act” by some civil rights and LBGTQ+ groups;
- Progressive lawmakers must push states to adopt privacy protections that can safeguard users of every age from harmful platforms, while also preserving privacy, autonomy, and an open internet.
In September, S.T.O.P. released The Kids Won’t Be Alright: The Looming Threat of Child Surveillance Laws, detailing the threat that age-verification laws on the internet pose to children’s safety and privacy. Less than two weeks after the release of the report, S.T.O.P. expressed concern over newly proposed NY social media legislation which incorporated the use of age verification technology.
SEE: S.T.O.P. Report - The Kids Won’t Be Alright: The Looming Threat of Child Surveillance Laws
https://www.stopspying.org/child-surveillance
Press Release - S.T.O.P. Concerned Over NY Social Media Legislation, Warns ‘Age Verification Doesn’t Work’
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/10/11/stop-concerned-over-ny-social-media-legislation-warns-age-verification-doesnt-work
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn.
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