Guidelines for User Age-Verification and Responsible Dialogue Act (guard Act) [pdf]
Mood
skeptical
Sentiment
negative
Category
other
Key topics
The 'Guard Act' bill proposes guidelines for user age-verification and responsible dialogue, sparking concerns among HN users about its implications on online freedom and potential ineffectiveness.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
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Hour 1
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- 01Story posted
Oct 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM EDT
29 days ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Oct 28, 2025 at 10:20 PM EDT
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Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Oct 29, 2025 at 2:03 AM EDT
29 days ago
Step 04
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> [The] Secretary of Commerce [...] shall establish a pilot program [...] for providing a secure digital identification credential to individuals who are citizens and lawful residents of the United States at no cost to the individual.
> [By] uploading copies of government-issued and other forms of identification (such as records issued by an educational institution), or by validating the authenticity of identity information provided by the individual using electronic records of State departments of motor vehicles, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, State agencies responsible for vital records, or other governmental or professional records providers that the Secretary determines are able to reliably assist in the verification of identity information.
On the other hand, it has some provisions that I'm surprised and pleased to see, since I was expecting something a lot worse:
> 7.(B)(3)(B) [Allow users to] control what data they choose to allow the pilot program to share with a social media platform, without sharing copies of the underlying verification documents or any information that the user does not affirmatively agree to share with those social media platforms.
> 7.(B)(4) Not retain copies of underlying governmental records after verifying the information provided by the user.
> 7.(B)(5) Provide users with the ability to disable or delete their secure digital identification credential and any associated records kept by the Pilot Program at any time.
> 7.(B)(5) Keep no records of the social media platforms where users have verified their identity using a secure digital identification credential, other than aggregate data that is anonymized so that it cannot be linked to individual users.
I don’t see how it would be possible to provide AI services in educational contexts, or to teach kids how to use AI-based tools.
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