I use voip.ms, which gives full SIP for something like $4/mo / line. Their SMS/MMS bridge is a bit limited, but I really don’t use that, and otherwise I haven’t really run into any issues.
Here is a list of every state and federal bill proposed in the United States in recent history (that I could find). Have a look at the letter beside the names of the sponsors. Then, after you've discovered that online surveillance bills are almost entirely written by republicans, go read about how your president is bankrolling ICE and their purchase of US citizen's air travel data.
Protecting Kids from Social Media Act (Tennessee HB 1891)
Sponsors Representative William Lamberth (R‑TN)
Requires: Social media platforms to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for under‑18 users; restricts retention of verification data; allows parental monitoring & time limits. Went into effect January 1, 2025.
Utah Social Media Regulation Act (SB 152 & HB 311)
Sponsors: Sen. Michael McKell (R) , Rep. Jordan Teuscher (R-District 44)
Requires: Mandatory age verification for all users; parental consent and oversight for under‑18s; bans algorithmic targeting to minors; curfews; data‑privacy protections. (As of mid‑2025, enforcement blocked by litigation.)
The Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act (Mississippi HB 1126)
Sponsors: Walker Montgomery (R‑MS)
Requires: Digital service platforms to verify age using "commercially reasonable" methods, obtain parental consent for users under 18, limit collection/use of minor’s data, moderate harmful content (self‑harm, grooming, etc.)
Texas SCOPE Act (HB 18, “Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment”)
Sponsors: Bryan Hughes (R-District 5)
Requires: Platforms to verify the parent/guardian age if the account is for a minor; parental consent before collecting data for users under 18; content filtering for self‑harm, etc. Enforcement partially blocked by lawsuit.
Kids Online Safety & Privacy Act (S. 2073 – pending)
Sponsors: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA)
Requires: Commission study into age‑verification technologies; does not mandate verification itself
Utah Social Media Regulation Act S.B. 152
Sponsors: Sen. Todd Weiler (R)
Requires: Mandatory age verification, parental consent, time‑bed restrictions, limits on algorithmic recommendations; currently blocked in court
Mississippi Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act (HB 1126)
Sponsors: Representative Walker Montgomery (R‑MS)
Requires: Age verification for digital services, parental consent, limits on data collection and harmful content moderation
Georgia Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act (SB 351 / Act 463)
Sponsors: State Senator Brandon Beach (R)
Requires: Platforms verify age of new users; under‑16 require parental consent; schools to ban social media access
Virginia Amendment to VA Consumer Data Protection Act (SB 854)
Sponsors: Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D) , Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D)
Requires: Requires age determination, parental consent for under‑16, limits usage to 1 hour/day unless overridden by parent, fines up to $7,500 per violation
Louisiana HB 142 (and HB 570) Online Age Verification for Adult Content
Sponsors: Representative Laurie Schlegel (R)
Requires: Websites where ≥ 33% of content is adult must verify users are 18+ via IDs or transaction data; private causes of action allowed
Ohio HB 96 (2025 law)
Sponsors: Bryan Stewart (R-Ashville)
Requires: Criminal penalties for commercial sites failing to verify adult content users
Iowa SF 207 / HF 864
Sponsors: Kevin Alons (R-Disctrict 7)
Texas SB 2420 (App-Store Age Verification)
Sponsors: Angela Paxton (R)
South Carolina HB 3405
Sponsors: Representative Brandon Guffey (R‑SC) prefiled Jan 2025
Proposed: Require app stores to verify age and obtain parental consent for minors; still pending
Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (S. 1291 federal bill)
Sponsored by: Senator Brian Schatz (D‑HI), Senators Tom Cotton (R‑AR), Chris Murphy (D‑CT), Katie Britt (R‑AL)
Requires: Social media platforms to verify user ages, prohibit access to under‑13s, block algorithmic feeds to users under 18, require parental consent for minors
App Store Accountability Act (H.R. 10364 / companion Senate bill)
Sponsored by: Rep. John James (R‑MI‑10); Senate version by Sen. Mike Lee (R‑UT) with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D‑CT)
Requires: App store operators verify ages and obtain parental consent before minors download apps or make in‑app purchases; federal preemption and FTC enforcement
Now go and find how much opposition there was to such laws when the Democrats were in power. Spoiler: it's negative. Whenever Democrats inherit a law like that from Republicans they expand its scope with giddy abandon as the media and their "vote blue no matter who" followers stand by and clap.
My thesis isn't that Democrats write those bills, my thesis is that there is never effective citizen resistance against government overreach when Democrats are in power. People can only be free when they are fighting the government and people only fight Republican governments, ergo we must vote Republican to keep the fight going. Both sides are our enemy, but one side enjoys a much larger cult following that will never attack it.
How does the EU solution make user's whole? At least with class actions, users get to see a few pennies.
I'm not trying to make an argument against strong regulatory bodies. We need those for sure. It would just be nice if the users were compensated for the exploitation and abuse they're subjected to.
The US solution does not make users whole and does not meaningfully change anything.
The EU solution meaningfully changes the offending company's behavior. I would rather have significantly less breaches of my information than a check for $6 in the mail every couple months.
> The EU solution meaningfully changes the offending company's behavior.
Citation needed. I'd imagine they just add a tiny markup to their prices to pay the eventual fine instead of investing huge amounts of money into fixing their broken processes. Comparing the list of EU-issued fines against the respective companies' profits shows that they can simply afford to make those mistakes instead of preventing them.
Great, they meant better acting corporations have no click or single click (dismiss-able with simple add-ons to proactively affirm the user's position) ribbons to get get rid of unwanted cookies. Let's be realistic anyone who hates those banners and hasn't bothered to do the google search and 5 minute task to get rid of them permanently (either enabling or disabling consent) is not having their political opinion changed by them, they are using them as an excuse to buttress their position of government bad or corporations malicious.
The EU solution provides incentive for the government to attack large businesses with lawsuits. That’s predatory and will lead to large businesses trying to lobby the EU to go after their competitors.
paid for with revenue from years of predatory sales tactics, exploting defencies in Apple's parental controls by tricking children into buying things without their parents permission then refusing to refund them. Fuck these parasites.
