A law (HB 265) is being proposed in Delaware that would require commercial entities that knowingly or intentionally provide "materials harmful to minors" to verify the age of individuals accessing the material. While this sounds well-intended, there are significant privacy concerns that would result from passing this bill:

• Essentially everyone's data, and especially children, would have to be sent to 3rd party corporations and put their privacy at risk. A facial recognition system that "guesses" a person's age is also extremely problematic and has privacy risks. A system where AI "guesses" a person's age based on browsing history would pose an alarming risk to privacy and amount to large-scale digital surveillance.
• Even some strong supporters of child safety bills have expressed concerns about making age verification part of them. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), one of the backers of the Kids Online Safety Act, objected to the idea in a call with reporters earlier this month. In a statement, he tells The Verge that “age verification would require either a national database or a goldmine of private information on millions of kids in Big Tech’s hands” and that “the potential for exploitation and misuse would be huge.”
• There are also concerns that the definition of "material harmful to minors" could be used to restrict access to important information about sexual health, gender-affirming care, and other educational materials.
• These bills are likely unconstitutional. In Reno v. ACLU (1997), the Court struck down the statutory provisions of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) requiring use of age verification software as an unconstitutional content-based blanket restriction on speech:

This bill just passed the House and is being rushed through in the last two weeks of legislative session. Email Senators now and tell them to vote NO.