Protect Teens. Preserve Privacy.
Joined November 2025
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📣Introducing Connect x Protect, a campaign dedicated to advancing smart, balanced and effective policies that protect kids and teens online while safeguarding privacy and parental choice.
🔗Learn more about our mission and get involved: connectxprotect.org/mission/
We all want kids to be safer online. But what about our essential rights?
Looking forward to @CatoInstitute's Oct. 19 debate with @kmanguward, @jrhuddles and Meg Leta Jones on balancing kids' safety with free expression.
cato.org/events/2nd-annual-c…
AI-fueled cyber threats demand stronger defenses.
@Logan_Kolas (@consumerpal) in @TechPolicyPress: “The only way to guarantee that all consumer data is protected from the growing threat of cybersecurity breaches is not to collect it in the first place.”
techpolicy.press/age-verific…
“Requiring a government ID or other personal information to access online content can discourage people from seeking the help they need.” - @terencesamuel on the importance of access to online resources and community
Read the latest in our #SafetySeries: linkedin.com/pulse/safety-sh…
📅 Mark your calendars for Oct. 19!
As debates over online regulation continue, protecting free expression remains essential. Glad to see @AEI highlighting this fundamental right at its upcoming “Prioritizing Free Expression in the United States” event.
aei.org/events/prioritizing-…
“Educating parents—not rationing lawful speech—provides a viable path forward.”
In a new blog post, @AEI makes the case for putting families at the center of online safety solutions without defaulting to broad restrictions on access and privacy.
aei.org/domestic-policy/tech…
How can policymakers make the internet safer while safeguarding privacy, free expression & fundamental rights?
@CenDemTech weighs in on that balance as the EU considers its next steps on kids' online safety.
cdt.org/insights/op-ed-a-saf…
#NEW: Giving parents trusted guidance and tools to make decisions for their own family is a crucial piece of the kids’ safety puzzle. @AmerAcadPeds partnered with Apple on new guidance for families to build healthy digital habits: publications.aap.org/aapnews…
As the EU weighs the EU Kids Act, @EFF is raising concerns about its approach:
“However they’re designed, age gates undermine civil liberties, reduce safety, and create barriers to internet entry.”
What the draft law could mean for privacy and access: eff.org/deeplinks/2026/09/eu…
Age checks can’t make kids safer if they don’t work.
A state government report points to research showing that more than 85% of users under 16 continued accessing restricted platforms even after age checks were introduced.
Read the full report:
dls.virginia.gov/commissions…
#ICYMI: Online safety and privacy are not competing goals.
In the first installment of our #SafetySeries, @terencesamuel laid out the principles that should guide the online safety debate.
Read more:
linkedin.com/feed/update/urn…
Keeping kids safe online is a widely shared, bipartisan goal. But deciding how to do this has quickly gotten complicated. @jdtabish (@ProgressChamber) joined @ShaneTews to discuss online safety, age assurance, privacy & the road ahead.
Worth a listen 🎧👇
aei.org/multimedia/how-do-we…
How do we make social media safer for young people without creating new privacy risks or unintended consequences?
A new report from @LawEconCenter digs into that question and the limits of broad social media regulation.
Read more:
laweconcenter.org/resources/…
New research from the VA government highlights an important flaw of online age checks: To figure out who is a minor, platforms may need to collect & process more data from everyone, not just kids.
Real privacy concerns from the people behind the policy:
dls.virginia.gov/commissions…
Starting tomorrow, we’ll be tuning in to @CenDemTech’s Future of Speech Online conference. We’re glad to see age verification, privacy & online safety on the agenda.
#FOSO2026
cdt.org/events/2026-future-o…
On Constitution Day, Pt. 2 in our #SafetySeries reminds us that protecting kids shouldn’t mean compromising the fundamental rights we’re celebrating.
@terencesamuel explores how #ageverification impacts privacy, free expression & anonymous online access:
shorturl.at/pmTib
Connect x Protect retweeted
This is the result of Texas' SB 2420, the App Store Accountability Act.
Every user must go through an ID age verification process in order to download apps - ANY apps - from the App Store.
The law is being litigated in the Fifth Circuit currently, but the law was allowed to take effect during the process.
If this is not overturned by the Fifth Circuit AND it passes federally (fortunately they're done until after elections) this will be required of every user in America.
It's Digital ID.
reddit.com/r/McDonalds/comme… And they say age verification law BS only applies to adult stuff in Texas - explain why this is happening to apps like MCDONALD'S then?
Connect x Protect retweeted
"Ignoring the concerns of civil society and risks to privacy is not the best path for writing policy that protects kids. Age restriction policies have largely failed elsewhere," says @KayJebelli
Read our full statement here: progresschamber.org/news/von…
Age verification laws offer a false sense of security, especially as tech-savvy teens find ways around them.
In @townhallcom, Bojan Lazarevski (@JoinYoungVoices) urges lawmakers to consider tools that empower parents while preserving privacy for all.
townhall.com/columnists/boja…
🚨 A reported breach involving millions of IDs reminds us: collecting sensitive personal information creates real risk. Online safety solutions should protect people without requiring more personal data than necessary.
Read more from @NBCNews
nbcnews.com/tech/security/fb…
Worth a read from @family_itguy: A resource that simplifies the answer to the question, "Will this Meta settlement reduce harm to kids?"
familyitguy.com/meta-settlem…
The big Meta lawsuit out of LA, the $18B settlement where Meta admitted no wrongdoing - what does it mean? What will life be like in 5 years as a result? What precedents does it set? Will it help kids? Why did Meta's stock go up after the settlement?
TL;DR It's a smokescreen. It's a distraction. We need to watch Meta's next lobbying steps around age verification laws and the push to transfer their liability for harming kids onto other entities. Age verification systems require the fundamental underpinnings of centralized, individualized, automated censorship - controlling who is or is not allowed to see certain things. All the while, age verification doesn't solve any of the problems we're actually dealing with. Any potential solutions must pass the accountability test - the people best positioned to regulate parenting are parents themselves, and no one else. A child's health, safety and security are the responsibility of the child's parents/guardians. A non-consensual security-outsourcing arrangement is built on a false premise. Therefore it is irrelevant what anybody else thinks about how I parent, what rules I should have in my house, or what my kids do.
I put together my thoughts on some of it at familyitguy.com/meta-settlem… and spoke with Julie Barrett @CLADIESAMERICA about it at youtube.com/watch?v=rzqNBVqJ…
I also just got done reading wsj.com/opinion/the-meta-set… - I recommend it, it's well thought through. Stuff like:
"We are protecting children's privacy by requiring a company to know more about them."
"The settlement is billed as empowering parents, and in places it does. But plenty of these decisions used to belong to parents alone, and now they don't."
"Teenagers have been dodging house rules since long before Mark Zuckerberg was born, and the fact that enforcement is hard doesn't mean the job transfers to a state attorney general."
"Social-media feeds are, among other things, distribution systems for speech. Rules governing how lawful information gets recommended or delivered can raise real constitutional questions."
And plenty more. @Robert_Bork_Jr nailed it.