MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama state Senate’s Children and Youth Health Committee on Thursday approved two bills intended to prevent minors from accessing adult content online, one aimed at device manufacturers and the other aimed at app store providers.
Neither bill is being put forth as an alternative to site-based age verification, as Alabama already has an especially punitive site-based AV law on the books. Instead, the two bills would supplement that legislation.
Device-Level Filtering and App Store AV
SB 186, introduced by Republican state Senator Clyde Chambliss and nearly identical to a Utah law that took effect in January, would require manufacturers of internet-enabled devices to provide filtering software capable of blocking sexually explicit material, which would automatically activate during device activation if the user is a minor. Manufacturers violating this requirement would be subject to civil liability and penalties, as would anyone other than a parent or legal guardian who disables the filtering software.
This is not the first time such a bill has been introduced in the Alabama legislature. Republican Rep. Chris Sells has repeatedly sponsored bills with similar provisions, none of which passed.
SB 187, also introduced by Chambliss, targets app store providers rather than manufacturers. It would require such providers to verify the ages of users and to link minors’ accounts with parental accounts for approval of app downloads and in-app purchases. Developers would be notified of users’ verified ages and would be required to confirm age and parental consent before providing access to apps.
A First Amendment Double Standard
During the committee hearing, Justin Hill of tech industry trade group NetChoice, which Hill described as “right-of-center,” spoke in opposition to both bills. He told the committee that NetChoice supports the goal of protecting children but seeks to accomplish that goal “without violating the First Amendment rights of all citizens across the country.”
Hill specified that First Amendment issues arise when bills “cast a wide net across all users to make them prove they are an adult before they have access to information.”
Despite this contention, Hill then expressed enthusiastic support for Alabama’s AV law requiring all users to prove they are adults before they have access to adult content, which is constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment.
“I was very glad that you all passed the content age-verification for the porn sites because if you go to Pornhub.com today in Alabama, they have a two-and-a-half-minute long video saying that they don’t like the law you passed, and they really want a law like this one today, because they don’t want the responsibility,” Hill said.
Hill’s remarks echo those of fellow tech lobbyist Doug Abraham of the App Association, who earlier this month told the South Dakota state Senate Judiciary Committee that the success of site-based AV laws is evidenced by the fact that large porn sites have stopped making their services available in states that have passed such bills, and cited Free Speech Coalition’s support for device-based age verification as a reason to reject that model and insist on site-based AV.
“If you look at who’s opposing it, you can tell who it hits the hardest,” Abraham said.
The Children and Youth Health Committee approved both bills, which will next be considered by the full Alabama Senate.