California’s Proposed Law Could Change the Internet

Today, for better or worse, the Internet is a rather free range for children. Websites ask their users’ ages, sure. But virtually anyone who came of age around the rise of the Internet can probably relate a time or 20 when they gave a false birthdate.

A California law now in the works might bring that world to a crashing halt.

AB 2273, or the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, promises to make the Internet safer for children—in part by tightening age verification. Its opponents instead believe that, in the process, AB 2273 could completely decimate the existing Internet as we…