CoinDesk
The U.S. House passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act on June 29 by a 267-117 vote, a package built around the Kids Online Safety Act that now sits in the Senate ahead of a Commerce Committee markup this month. In a CoinDesk column, Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard argues the bill's age-verification design carries a structural flaw: making platforms liable for harm to minors forces them toward identity vendors whether or not verification is explicitly mandated.
Why it matters
Gregaard anchors the warning in two prior breaches. In 2024, identity provider AU10TIX, which served TikTok and Uber, exposed driver licenses to hackers for over a year. In 2025, the age-verification vendor behind Discord was breached, potentially exposing 70,000 government IDs. He frames those incidents as evidence that once age checks depend on stored identity data, the safety system becomes a breach vector, and argues that AI accelerates both the speed of attacks and the scale of damage once a vendor is compromised.
Market impact
The piece also lands a product plug. Gregaard points to Cardano Foundation-built Veridian, deployed under Utah's State-Endorsed Digital Identity framework, as a working model that lets users prove they are over or under a specific age without exposing other data. The column's editorial position: data minimization, retention limits, and privacy-preserving verification should be the explicit test for KIDS, KOSA, and any successor that ties child safety to identity infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions
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What is the KIDS Act and what does it do?
The Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act passed the U.S. House on June 29 by a 267-117 vote as a package built around the Kids Online Safety Act. It now sits in the Senate, where a Commerce Committee markup is expected this month.
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Why does the Cardano Foundation CEO think age verification is risky?
Frederik Gregaard argues that making platforms liable for harm to minors pushes them toward identity vendors even without an explicit mandate. He cites the 2024 AU10TIX breach, which exposed driver licenses for over a year, and a 2025 Discord age-verification breach that may have exposed 70,000 government IDs.
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What is Veridian and how does it work in Utah?
Veridian is a digital identity product built by the Cardano Foundation and deployed under Utah's State-Endorsed Digital Identity framework. It lets users prove they are over or under a specific age without exposing other personal data, which Gregaard frames as a working model for privacy-preserving verification.
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Does the KIDS Act require age verification?
The bill does not mandate age verification outright. Gregaard argues the liability structure still pushes platforms toward it, because accepting legal exposure of not knowing who is a minor is the cheaper alternative for most companies.
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What happens next with KOSA in the Senate?
KOSA's own authors, Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Marsha Blackburn, rejected the House version and are pushing a tougher bill, partly by tying it to federal preemption of state AI laws. A Senate Commerce Committee markup is expected this month.
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