The Intercept published analysis showing that the KIDS Act's age verification system could enable government and corporate surveillance targeting journalists and whistleblowers—despite the law's stated goal of protecting children. Security specialists and privacy advocates have documented how age-verification tokens, if poorly designed, could become tracking infrastructure rather than protective tools. The article is well-sourced, but Lorenz's framing that child protection is the stated rather than actual purpose is editorial judgment, not established fact—legislators may genuinely intend both child safety and accept surveillance risks as tradeoff.