Digital IDs Are Paving the Road to 1984
If you’re a parent like me, you probably share my concern about what kids are up to on their phones at 2 a.m.—doom-looping reels—being served sexualized ads—talking to strangers in online forums. We’re all anxious about it—the kids and the parents. I get it, and I’m all for shielding kids from the digital sludge out there, but when “protection” means handing over your identity to Big Brother, it’s time to ask a few questions.
Have you noticed the uptick in popular services that now have “child” versions of apps and tech? It all stems from the old world where we had child-locked accounts on streaming services (like Netflix or Disney) to make sure your kid doesn’t watch Eyes Wide Shut while you’re away for the weekend.
The truth is, there is only so much we can do. It’s always been this way.
I want to address Texas’s recent law forcing Apple and Google to verify ages before app downloads—and why this “save the children” push feels to me like a Trojan Horse for subtle totalitarianism.
The Noble Intent Behind a Creepy Law
Governor Greg Abbott just signed a bill kicking in next month, which says if you live in the Lone Star State and want to download an app from the App Store or Google Play, you’ll need to prove your age. Everyone.
On the surface, this doesn’t appear to be unreasonable at all, right?
Anyone can put anything on the App Store these days, so why wouldn’t they want to force tech companies to screen for minors downloading inappropriate tech? We do this for drugs, alcohol, over the counter medications, and even to buy a ticket to a movie already. Lawmakers swear it’s about curbing addictive platforms and toxic content—porn, predators, endless dopamine hits. And to a certain extent, I believe they believe that.
It’s outwardly noble. Absolutely. It’s good that society is now trying to wrestle the iPads away from kids before they turn into zombies who can’t focus or hold eye contact. This personal screens thing has been a failed social experiment.
But here’s the problem: “Commercially reasonable” age verification?
That’s lawyer-speak for choose your own adventure. It could mean uploading your driver’s license, facial scans, or worse—tying your biometrics to a government ID database.
Apple and Google are pushing back hard, warning it’ll gut privacy and bury developers in red tape. Not just in Texas by the way—these laws are popping up nationwide, from California’s content filters to federal pushes for “kid-safe” tech. It starts with apps, ends with... I think, everything else.
Your bank? Your vote? Your doctor’s visit? Your family visits to the guns and ammo store? Soon, everything may require a digital hall pass.
“But John, it’s for the kids!“ “Parents need backup!”
Screen time’s a plague. I hate it.
Gen Z is more miserable than any generation of children should ever be, with sky-high anxiety, suicidality, and a 30% spike in reported self-censorship online and in classrooms. They are not okay.
But a mandatory ID law doesn’t fix root problems; it builds up the surveillance state that will one day make us all its targets. An ID law for kids by definition means an ID law for adults. At the grocery store, when you’re old enough, clerks eventually stop asking for your ID for alcohol based on your physical appearance… usually… but that can’t happen for impersonal digital downloads.
Also, for what it’s worth, bad guys (hackers, hostile governments) LOVE centralized data. Remember Equifax’s 2017 breach? 147 million IDs stolen. Now imagine that on steroids, with your children’s information and identities in the crosshairs.
George Orwell warned in 1984 that “Big Brother is watching you.” And he is. But so is Big Tech, probably even more than the government, and now the government is asking them for further cooperation and access to what companies have on citizens. Once they start cooperating, they won’t stop.
Let’s also pause for a second here. Regardless of party, do we really believe these politicians, often very up there in years, even understand the laws they’re writing? The consequences they’re enforcing? That alone leaves me uneasy.
A Rock and a Hard Place
Texas’s law is step one: “Verify age” will become “verify everything.”
We’ve seen it before—COVID contact tracing apps morphed into permanent health passports in places like China. Here, it starts with porn filters but slides to political ones.
Who decides what’s “harmful”?
The same folks who labeled Hunter Biden’s laptop “disinfo”?
No thanks.
Parents, this isn’t safe—ID verification is a friendly backdoor to monitoring your family’s every move. And for kids, it teaches dependence on the state, not independence. We’re raising a generation less willing to risk, speak up, or even date offline. That’s not protection; that’s paralysis.
I struggle with screen time as much as anyone, and yeah, I’d love a magic app-blocker. But embracing totalitarian tools won’t make kids safer or happier in the long run. It’ll make us weaker, more isolated, and easier to control.
Limit screens yourself, implement family screen-time contracts, have no-phones-at-dinner rules, and set up app download restrictions through iOS if you’re using Apple devices. Every so often, ask to review your kid’s phone settings and apps.
I’m guessing you pay their bill… so it’s not their phone. You gave it to them to be used as a tool. Now manage it.