LunarMoth87

(Source here)

These 2 cool people are correct (unrelated; if you like horror, dark fantasy, and vampires, check out Sarah N’s webcomics).

Let’s have the Screen Act stay dead for good and let’s eliminate the Kill Online Speech Act (my nickname for KOSA) already.

TLDR;

Four kids safety bills passed the committee

Kosa, The Youth AI Privacy Act, Senator Tammy Duckworth's bill, and the chatbot act

All of these bills require age verification even if it’s not specifically said within the text

All of them require companies to have knowledge of the users age, which is impossible without age verification

The screen act actually is honest about its want for age verification, but “It went nowhere anyway. It hit a 15-to-13 tally, but only because a majority of the committee has to be physically present to vote and a majority wasn't.”

full thing

“KOSA went through on a unanimous voice vote. This obviously wasn't a place for a debate.

The Youth AI Privacy Act from Senator Ed Markey advanced.

So did the CHATBOT Act from Senator Ted Cruz, with Senators Schatz, Curtis and Schiff as co-sponsors.

Senator Tammy Duckworth's bill makes four, and it orders the FTC and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to study AI-enabled toys, which turns on nothing a company has to know about a user.

A fifth, the SCREEN Act, got a tally and no result, which we'll come back to.”

the problem within each of these texts

“Every one of these bills turns on a company knowing something it has no way of knowing.”

All of these bills require the companies to know if the user is a minor, which is impossible without age verification and is a major issue with critics

“Others read it differently. The Age Verification Providers Association, whose members sell the checking, says KOSA sidesteps how a platform is meant to work out who is a minor, so that "the operative legal standard remains implied knowledge" and no service is obliged to install age-assurance technology.”

(But the problem is that unless there is another way to find out who’s a minor, age verification is the only way)

other bills

Something like the ChatBot ACT does the same thing, where they don’t explicitly say it requires age verification

But age verification is the only way to do these things, especially since this bill requires the company to figure out who is a child, teen or adult

Bottom line, all of these requires age verification in some kind of way, even if it’s worded differently each time

the screen act

The screen act actually says that “platforms to adopt "technology verification measures" that determine whether it is "more likely than not" that a user is a minor”

Hey, do you like reading fics on Ao3? Do you like being able to talk about being a part of a minority group online? Do you like being able to log into stuff without providing your ID to a random third party?

Well, they're trying to take your ability to do that away!!

If you haven't heard, they're trying to push for the KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) bill in the USA, which will basically ban kids from using the internet unless they want to give up personal information, amongst other things. They claim it's to protect the children from seeing harmful material, but that's a big load of horseshit - if they truly cared about the kids, they would improve parental locks and the safety of websites designed for them, instead of forcefully censoring the whole internet.

This is a plan to enact censorship on one of the only places that still hasn't been fully choked by it.

I know petitions don't do that much, so if you're in the USA, PLEASE contact your representatives - either trough an email or a phone call, and PLEASE don't stop periodically doing so until they're annoyed enough to vote against the bill.

And if you can't do that, or aren't in the USA, PLEASE AT LEAST SIGN THIS PETITION!!! IT TAKES LESS THAN A MINUTE AND YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO SIGN INTO ANYWHERE TO DO IT!!!

Gov. Pritzker just passed the HB 5511 - AKA "The Digital Assurance Act" into Law

What does this bill do?

!!! Put an age verification on operating systems - Effective starting Jan 1st 2028 !!!

We still have time to fight this - I also know the KIDS/KOSA Act is also ramping up

Do not give up, keep calling your senators, Reps and other govt. Officials

Sign petitions and Witness Slips

Here is a link of what I created that can help all you guys out:

What Could I say against Online Verification Bill 1 What Could I say against Online Verification Bill 2 A little Poem to show the Gravity of the Situation

THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER AND...

I BETTER NOT SEE A WHITE FUCKING FLAG 😡 💪!

FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM BEFORE THEY CLIP YOUR WINGS - ASK WHY YOU CAN'T FLY?

HumanConditionPoetry Flying Off 🦋!

Tagging all my Muts/people I follow - even those in other countries as it affects you guys too:

(8/3/2026)

The SCREEN Act failed (not dead, delayed) but KOSA passed the committee. Keep calling!!!

Tell them to OPPOSE KOSA AND ANYTHING REQUIRING A DIGITAL ID AND AGE VERIFICATION! Tell them parental controls already exist and that it'd infringe of freedom of speech!

Toronto is not a wildfire-prone area. It is extremely close to the USA border, and the smog is currently affecting NY right now. There is literal chunks of debris in the air. The sky is orange, and the sun is nowhere to be seen.

Climate change and its effects are right outside your door. Data centres are the cause for the insane heat waves across the globe, and the increase in wildfires and other natural disasters.

You will watch recordings of the world burn around you, and only when you are behind the camera will you realize there is no going back.

I personally think that's a bit of a doomerism mindset. I believe that many individual people doing small things for the world around you can absolutely help offset some of the damages companies are doing.

I think people with this mindset seem to think that what we do has to heal the planet overnight or it's useless. This is something that'll take time, and I promise we do have time.

What we do doesn't have to impact the whole world for it to matter, what it has to do is impact your surrounding environment. All you have to do is start with where you live, your own backyard. Planting native plants is probably the biggest thing you can do. I know a lot of people hate them but we need bugs, I cannot stress enough how much we need bugs! We need native bees, butterflies, fireflies, etc, if you can bring native plants into your own yard, maybe talk to your neighbors about doing the same, you will greatly inpact your own environment for the better. Pick up trash around your neighborhood. If it's hot and dry where you live putting out a birdbath, a bee/bug watering station can help. Do not get rid of the fallen leaves in autumn, leaves provide food and shelter for bugs, fireflies especially. You can rake them into plies if you want but please leave them in your yard! Recycle, reuse what you already have, buy secondhand, so much of the landfill is stores throwing out perfectly good items just because they didn't sell, stop buying from these stores and they'll stop producing so much.

So much of helping the planet is helping the wildlife survive. We need plants, we need animals, we need bugs, we need all the little citters to keep being able to do what they need to do. Don't forget that humans are mammals, we are animals, we are apart of nature. There's a woman on tiktok that has a series about Rewilding Your Life, because we are wild and we're been made to forget that and seperate ourselves from nature. The planet would not be better without humans, we are meant to be here, some just have to learn to take care of it like all the other animals do.

There are others that can make much more detailed posts about what you can do to help, even if you live in an apartment or don't have a yard you can still have an impact.

(PT: A moment of silence to the trans women & transfems who never got to live authentically. /end PT.)

To the ones who spent their entire lives in the closet.

To the ones who were out, but existed before the time of modern silence, and spent their lives unsatisfied yearning for a physical transition.

To the ones who were out, but too poor to access the resources needed to live happily, or lived in a country where it was illegal.

To the ones whose lives were stolen from them due to transmisogynistic violence before they had the chance to spread their wings.

To the ones whose lives were lost due to other forms of violence, accidents, or illness before they had the chance to soar.

⭐️🇺🇸KIDS ACT AND KOSA UPDATE! 🇺🇸⭐️

BAD NEWS:

The Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance KOSA in the markup. The committee's approved version keeps the controversial duty of care provision intact, setting up a major legislative clash with the House of Representatives.

GOOD NEWS:

The Screen Act did not survive the markup! 🎊 (Update: @cofa said it will get a revote! This is ridiculous! I hope it gets shot down again!)

You can read more information on Politico or watch the video on the Senate Commerce Committee site! It's only an hour it was very short! I was surprised.

In the article from Politico/Markup Marsha Blackburn (R) (She is for this bill) said this:

“The Senate cannot and will not accept the version that the House passed earlier. It is toothless, and it is a very pale imitation of the Senate version, and therefore, it is a pale imitation of big tech accountability,” Blackburn said during the committee markup.

(Marsha and crew for these laws GO GET DUNKED ON IN THE SENATE ! Also, this woman looks and sounds like such a Karen literally look up a picture of her. She looks like she calls the cops on her neighbors for having a bbq.😂)

Anyway, from what I watched, this is going to be a HUGE fight in the Senate. This thing is all over the place it's awful to even listen, too! I would LOVE to see them get laughed out of there!