Governments and companies are actively pushing for age verification legislation worldwide that would invade people's privacy and this is not okay. There are books like The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (and it's kid-oriented version, The Amazing Generation). While it seems like a innocent book at first by it's cover, seeming like a book that tries to "protect the mental health" of younger people and starting a panic over smartphones, social media, electronics, and the Internet, it is actually causing more damage than good. As someone who cares about privacy a lot, I am strongly against this book.

This book is notorious for popularizing and influencing the extremely controversial trend of age verification laws worldwide (including similar, related laws like social media bans for minors and digital ID laws). This book served as one of the reasons why Australia passed their social media ban age verification law for under 16s, and keep in mind that law is facing a legal challenge against it because people are questioning how constitutional it is. Haidt even supports the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in the United States and the UK's Online Safety Act, two controversial bills that would require you to dox yourself and give out your ID to use the Internet. He has also praised similar laws in Spain, Netherlands, Mississippi (which lead to BlueSky blocking themselves from that state due to their social media ban), Florida, and others. Discord is planning their age verification worldwide as of the result of this book (Yes, this can be confirmed as they became alleviated with Peter Thiel, who supports this book as his views on technology seem to stem from it and he is known to be a controversial figure who supports age verifications). Haidt is even allegedly working with governments to require electronic devices to have age verification. 

Age verification laws are notorious and controversial for not just requiring users to dox themselves, but could also risk a data breach for millions of people worldwide where their personal information becomes public, and hackers could use these for doxxing or sell IDs for ransom. Many of these laws, especially within states located in the USA, have been blocked due to how unconstitutional and privacy-invading they are. I also want to mention, this book has made the panic over social media/smartphones worse over time rather than better as Haidt still continues his movement. Scientific experts, such as Andrew Przybylsky, Pete Etchells, Mike Masnick, Ben Chugg, and Candice Odgers for instance have opposed the book because of the lack of nuance on the claims it has and it's overexaggerated viewpoints. This book rather uses a overexaggerated view on technology with extreme viewpoints rather than actually teaching people and the media how we can do things to actually keep children safe online without invading privacy.

I get it that parents, people and the media want to keep children and teens safe online and want to protect their mental health, but governments should NOT be passing invasive laws that interfere with our privacy and lead to doxxing and hacking. There are actually better ways of keeping younger people safe online and on electronics (not age verification) that actually keeps them safe, but at the same time, doesn't require them to dox themselves like parental controls, digital literacy, and education. If you're a governor and people don't want age verification laws, then don't pass one. It's not hard. There are also better books that discuss the issues of excessive electronic usage on children but at the same time, doesn't push out for anti-freedom laws like Behind Their Screens by Carrie James and Emily Weinstein for example.

If someone's there to protect their children online or decide whether or not they should be allowed on social media websites/electronics, that should mostly be their parents. They can just tell their kids to get off mainstream social media like Instagram or TikTok (not really including some stuff like YouTube) and tell them to go on alternatives like Scratch, Zigazoo, LEGO Play, Roblox, Minecraft, PopJam, Animal Jam etc. There are some government laws that regulate Internet usage, and they really aren't problems. However, as time goes on, more laws, especially age verification laws are being proposed and passed. I feel like this will continue to get worse if we don't push back.

We do care about children's mental health and we do want to keep them safe online, but we should actually promote parental regulation, digital literacy, and education, not push out for age verification/digital ID/social media ban laws worldwide and anger everyone because their personal space and privacy is gone. Sign this petition in me encouraging major retailers and libraries to take down the book and publishers to discontinue this book permanently and take it down from shelves. Thank you all.