<2>Colorado Lawmakers Push for Age Verification at the Operating System Level
<3>The Proposed Legislation: SB26-051
<>Colorado lawmakers are proposing SB26-051, a bill that would require operating systems to register a user’s age bracket and share it with apps via an API. This legislation comes from state Sen. Matt Ball and Rep. Amy Paschal, both Democrats. “The intent is to create thoughtful safeguards for kids online through a privacy-forward framework for age assurance,” Ball told PCMag. “Unlike some laws in other states, SB 51 doesn’t require users to share personally identifiable information or use facial recognition technology.”
<>The legislation also promises to centralize the age check through the OS, rather than mandating that each app enforce their own age-verification mechanism, which can involve scanning the user’s official ID, thus raising privacy and security concerns. The bill also forbids the sharing of the age-bracket data for any other purpose.
<>However, it looks like it’s easy to bypass the age check proposed by SB26-051. The legislation itself doesn’t mention any state ID check to verify the owner