Three States Are Building Age Checks Into Our Phones and Computers

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TL;DR

California, Colorado and Illinois have passed laws that make age classification part of your phone and computer. Privacy advocates warn that once this system is in place, it could make more invasive forms of identity verification much easier to expand.

Age verification is moving beyond individual websites and into the operating systems that run phones and computers.

California, Colorado and Illinois have now enacted laws that require device manufacturers, operating-system providers or related platforms to build age information into the infrastructure of personal computing.

State	Law	What it does	Effective
California	AB 1043 Digital Age Assurance Act Amended by AB 1856	At account setup, users can provide an age or birth date so the device can generate an age-bracket signal that applications can request. A 2026 amendment narrowed parts of the law and added an exemption for qualifying open-source software.	Jan. 1, 2027
Colorado	SB 26-051	Requires covered operating-system providers to let an account holder supply a birth date, age or age bracket and make an age signal available to applications through a standardized interface.	July 1, 2028
Illinois	HB 5511 Public Act 104-0664	Requires covered manufacturers with account setup on connected devices to provide a way to identify the primary user's age or birth date. Covered platforms can then request an age-bracket signal. The law covers smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.	Jan. 1, 2028

Earlier laws largely placed the responsibility on particular websites, especially pornography sites and social-media platforms. These newer laws push age information closer to the device itself, creating an infrastructure through which your phone or computer can communicate an age category to software and online services.

That development comes amid a much broader expansion of age-verification laws following the Supreme Court's June 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. The Court upheld a Texas law requiring age verification to access certain sexual material and ruled that there is no First Amendment right to access material considered obscene to minors without first providing proof of age. The ruling was 6–3.

Why this news matters

Digital privacy advocates at Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned that the ruling could encourage more states to adopt age-verification requirements, arguing that such systems can undermine anonymity, restrict adults' access to lawful speech and create privacy and security risks when users must provide identifying information online.

EFF also argues that laws create added pressure for companies to become increasingly confident that the age information they receive is accurate. California, for example, allows civil penalties of up to $7,500 per affected child for intentional violations. EFF warns that companies facing that liability may eventually turn to stronger verification systems such as identification checks, biometric age estimation or additional personal-data collection.

"Many users will not be comfortable sharing private information to access sites that do implement age verification, for reasons of privacy or concern for data breaches. Many others do not have a driver’s license or photo ID to complete the age verification process,” the EFF wrote in July 2026.

“This decision will, ultimately, deter adult users from speaking and accessing lawful content, and will endanger the privacy of those who choose to go forward with verification...This Supreme Court broke a fundamental agreement between internet users and the state that has existed since its inception." 

Something to consider

Working class people ambivalent about encroaching anti-privacy legislation — from the Patriot Act to the death of Net Neutrality to the total lack of regulation on data gathering to now surveillance laws such as these — have long said that if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't care. That line of thinking has got us here, to a land riddled with data centers designed to monitor, track, and sell every aspect of our lives.

Take Action

So, what can we do?

Find out what age-verification infrastructure is being built in your state while there is still time to shape it.

Start here

Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation tracks age-verification legislation, challenges surveillance and privacy restrictions and maintains an Action Center where you can follow active campaigns and contact lawmakers.

Visit the Action Center ↗

Check your state

Start by finding out what your state is doing. Look for proposed and enacted age-verification legislation and read beyond the headline. Find out what operating systems, apps or websites may be required to collect, how age is determined, whether that information can be retained or shared and what protections exist for people who cannot or do not want to provide identification.

These policies are moving through state legislatures in different forms, which means many of the decisions about how this infrastructure will work are being made long before most people realize it exists.

Make it public

Put your concerns on the record.

Follow committee hearings and agency rulemaking, and submit public comments when they are requested. Pay attention when similar proposals appear under the language of “online safety,” “age assurance” or “child protection.”

Ask specifically what information will be collected, who can receive the resulting age signal, how long the data can be retained and whether stronger verification methods could be required later.

Organize

Individual privacy settings cannot stop infrastructure being created through law. Public awareness, sustained scrutiny and organized participation can shape what lawmakers are able to enact and how these systems are implemented.

Follow EFF →