If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Congress is once again positioning itself as the protector of children online, reviving the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA) in a new round of hearings on technology and youth. We obtained a copy of the bill for you here. Introduced by Senators Ted Cruz and Brian Schatz, the bill surfaced again during a Senate Commerce Committee session examining the effects of screen time and social media on mental health. Cruz warned that a “phone-based childhood” has left many kids “lost in the virtual world,” pointing to studies linking heavy screen use to anxiety, depression, and social isolation. KOSMA’s key provisions would ban social media accounts for anyone under 13 and restrict recommendation algorithms for teens aged 13 to 17. Pushers of the plan say it would “empower parents” and “hold Big Tech accountable,” but in reality, it shifts control away from families and toward corporate compliance systems. The bill’s structure leaves companies legally responsible for determining users’ ages, even though it does not directly require age verification. The legal wording is crucial. KOSMA compels platforms to delete accounts if they have “actual knowledge” or what can be “fairly implied” as knowledge that a user is under 13. That open-ended standard puts enormous pressure on companies to avoid errors. The most predictable outcome is a move toward mandatory age verification systems, where users must confirm their age or identity to access social platforms. In effect, KOSMA would link access to everyday online life to a form of digital ID. That system would not only affect children. It would reach everyone. To prove compliance, companies could require users to submit documents such as driver’s licenses, facial scans, or other biometric data. The infrastructure needed to verify ages at scale looks almost identical to the infrastructure needed for national digital identity systems. Once built, those systems rarely stay limited to a single use. A measure framed as protecting kids could easily become the foundation for a broader identity-based internet. Cruz has said, “KOSMA meets parents where they’re at” and “holds Big Tech accountable to their terms of service.” Yet under this approach, parents would have less say over how their children use technology. A child sharing a parent’s YouTube account for educational videos could trigger account suspension if an algorithm infers the child’s age from a comment or viewing pattern. Instead of supporting family oversight, companies would be legally obligated to override it. The bill also connects to classroom policy. It would tie federal funding to removing phones and social media access in schools. Cruz argued that distributing tablets and laptops to students has made supervision harder and increased screen dependence. But tying device rules to federal funding could expand digital monitoring in education, where children’s data is already collected at unprecedented levels. This debate is less about children sneaking onto apps and more about how far the government should go in reshaping digital identity. The logic behind KOSMA leads directly to a verified, traceable internet where participation depends on proving who you are. KOSMA’s intentions may be framed as safety, but its mechanics point toward surveillance. Once identity checks become a prerequisite for online access, privacy becomes the exception instead of the norm. A society that links childhood safety to digital ID risks erasing the right to anonymity for everyone. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Congress Revives Kids Off Social Media Act, a “Child Safety” Bill Poised to Expand Online Digital ID Checks appeared first on Reclaim The Net.