1. The New Political Narrative: “Protect Children — Submit Your ID”

Across the United States, more than 20 states are pushing or passing digital ID and age-verification laws that force adults to submit identification simply to access legal online content.

These laws require:

• Government-issued ID
• Digital identity verification
• Financial or transactional data
• Age verification tied directly to devices, apps, and operating systems

In Missouri, the law explicitly states that verification can be completed by submitting digital ID, government ID, or transactional data, and it even requires mobile operating systems to provide age-verification identification to websites.

In Texas, a major technology industry lawsuit describes these policies as a “broad censorship regime.”

Let’s be clear about what is happening.

Politicians claim these systems are necessary to protect children.

But the real result is simple:

• Adults must now prove who they are to access lawful content online.
• This flips a core Western principle on its head.
• In a free society, citizens do not need government permission to access what is legal.

That is the difference between a citizen and a subject.

2. Hypocrisy in Plain Sight

Politicians claim these laws are about protecting children.

Yet the same political class refuses to address the actual root of the issue:

• parental responsibility.

Instead, they push laws that shift responsibility away from parents and onto:

• private companies
• internet platforms
• device manufacturers
• identity verification systems

This approach does not protect children.

It builds a system where everyone must identify themselves before speaking or viewing lawful material online.

These tactics mirror policies already implemented in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, where age-verification systems and speech controls are expanding under the same political narrative.

The pattern is familiar:

• Claim to protect children
• Mandate identity verification
• Expand surveillance infrastructure
• Control access to speech and information

This is not a Western tradition.

It resembles systems historically used in authoritarian and collectivist states, where identity verification becomes a tool for categorizing populations and controlling speech.

3. The Alternative: Protect Kids Without Destroying Freedom

Protecting children is important.

But protecting children does not require turning the internet into an identification checkpoint for adults.

Freedom and child protection are not mutually exclusive.

The Digital Liberty Act (DLA) proposes a different path:

• Protect anonymous speech online
• Prevent mandatory digital ID systems for lawful internet access
• Maintain constitutional privacy protections
• Ensure child protection policies do not become surveillance systems

The internet flourished for over 30 years without mandatory identity checkpoints.

We can protect children without destroying the freedoms that built the modern internet.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you believe freedom and child protection must coexist, take action:

• Read the Digital Liberty Act

• Use it as a template for your own state legislation

• Share it with lawmakers and advocacy groups

• Sign and share the petition

Then:

• Spread the QR code and share this petition

• Send it to friends and family

• Contact your senators and representatives

• Educate others about the difference between protection and surveillance

Freedom survives when people defend it.

The choice now is simple:

Do we protect children while preserving liberty,

or do we build a system where every citizen must identify themselves before speaking, reading, or creating online?

Your voice matters.

Sign the petition and help defend digital liberty.