Massachusetts is poised to enact sweeping age verification requirements for social media users, with a bill passed by the House aiming to ban children under 14 entirely and require parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds. The law mandates that platforms implement systems to enforce these age restrictions, with the Attorney General tasked to develop the specific regulations. While lawmakers frame this as a protection against harmful content and addictive algorithms impacting youth mental health, critics point to significant privacy risks. The bill leaves the verification method vague, but practical implementation likely involves government IDs or facial scans, necessitating collection of identity data from all users. This raises concerns about data breaches, as evidenced by a past incident where a third-party vendor handling age verification for Discord exposed tens of thousands of users’ government ID photos and personal information.