A Senate panel advanced bills intended to protect children online, despite free speech and privacy concerns long raised by civil liberties groups about such proposals, particularly those that require or encourage age verification systems.

After the Senate votes on Wednesday, Leventoff reiterated: “Bills that incentivize or require age verification promise safety, but all they deliver is a future where everyone has to undergo invasive identity verification measures that will almost certainly put their sensitive data at risk. We shouldn’t need to fork over our IDs, biometrics, or personal information to access the internet, but that’s exactly what will happen if these bills become law.”