by Frank Bergman
A network of British globalist organizations is quietly driving legislation across the United States that would require Americans to verify their identities online through digital ID and age-verification systems.
The coordinated campaign has already reached 21 states and Congress, according to an investigation by Effort, with many of the same groups that helped deliver the United Kingdom’s sweeping anti-free speech Online Safety Act now working to replicate similar laws in America.
At the center of the effort is the UK-based 5Rights Foundation, whose leaders openly boast that U.S. legislation is modeled on Britain’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC).
“The Bill is practicable and realistic, drawing as it does on the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC),” the organization declared alongside two authors of California’s Age Appropriate Design Code.
The investigation identifies five organizations involved in promoting digital identity and age-verification laws across the U.S.
Four are British organizations.
The fifth, Reset Tech, operates as an international coalition with a UK branch.
British Influence Campaign Targets U.S. States
The campaign extends far beyond offering policy advice.
One of the organizations pushing the legislation represents companies that profit directly from mandatory age-verification requirements.
The Age Verification Providers Association is a British trade association whose members sell age-verification and age-estimation technology.
The group backed Britain’s Online Safety Act and has argued that internet users accessing websites through virtual private networks (VPNs) should undergo additional age verification.
In effect, the very tool many people use to protect their online privacy would become justification for demanding even more identification.
The obvious question is whether lawmakers voting on these bills realize one of the chief advocates stands to financially benefit every time another verification mandate becomes law.
California Became the Blueprint
The 5Rights Foundation, chaired by Baroness Beeban Kidron, played a central role in California’s Age Appropriate Design Code, which became law in 2022.