MONTGOMERY — Two bills by State Sen. Clyde Chambliss (R-Prattville) requiring device manufacturers and app stores to shield explicit content from minors passed the Senate Children and Youth Health Committee on Thursday.
Senate Bill 186 would require manufacturers of "certain Internet-enabled devices," including smartphones and tablets, to require that devices manufactured on or after January 1, 2027, contain a filter that is enabled during the device's activation if the user is a minor and only allow a user with a password to deactivate or reactivate the filter. The bill would also provide that a device manufacturer in violation of this act is subject to civil liability and provide for penalties.
Senate Bill 187 would require app store providers to verify users' ages, affiliate minor accounts with parent accounts and obtain consent from the parent account holder.
Chambliss said at the committee meeting, "One is more geared towards the app, the app store. One is more geared towards a filter and websites and that sort of thing."
"That's what we're talking about here today. We're here to try to protect our children from the digital version of what we already protect them from on the physical side," he added.
Both bills were supported by Stephanie Smith, president and CEO of the Alabama Policy Institute.
"My hope is that instead of opposing this bill manufacturers will be proud of their technical genius and help parents instead of creating hoops and barriers for them to protect their own kids. Our goal is to prevent Alabama's children from early and accidental exposure to potentially life-altering obscenities," Smith said during the public hearing on Senate Bill 186.
Justin Hill, a lobbyist with NetChoice trade association, spoke in opposition to both bills.
"Last year I did attend this hearing as well and I was very glad that you all passed the content age-verification for the porn sites because if you go to Pornhub today in Alabama they have a 2.5-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. They're the content providers," Hill said.
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