RS31007C1 / S1253

The proposed legislation seeks to fulfill the Government’s compelling interest in protecting children from exposure to harmful material online, and from being groomed by the use of the material into sexual exploitation, abuse, and sex trafficking, while not overburdening Free Speech. This is accomplished by requiring manufacturers of smartphones and tablets to enable existing filters for Idaho’s children. The filters are already there but defaulted to "off." This legislation simply asks manufacturers to turn them only for children. This legislation recognizes the serious harm that comes to children from online pornography exposure and leverages existing technology to empower all Idaho parents to remove this detrimental content from their child’s devices. This bill follows the filtering roadmap approved by the Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. ACLU, 542 U.S. 656, 670 (2004). Without this legislation it is not possible for all Idaho parents to effectively protect their children from the massive amounts of harmful material inundating them online due to complexity and lack of education. By placing internet filtering requirements at the device level during activation, we automate and simplify an unnecessarily complicated process as the devices move in and out of different Internet networks.

There is no fiscal impact to the General Fund, because parents have the ability to turn off the filters upon activation.

Bill Text

Statement of Purpose / Fiscal Note

Legislative Co-sponsors

Bill on Idaho Legislature site