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The Alabama Senate concurred Thursday on a bill that would require content filters to be enabled on internet-connected devices for minors.
While numerous new bills have advanced in this session to add safeguards against minors accessing adult sites and apps, this bill has been tried in the Legislature numerous times.
Senate Bill 186 by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, would require tablets and smartphones to automatically enable content filters when activated by a minor. The bill would create civil liability for manufacturers who sell smartphones or tablets that do not provide the automatic filter if a minor then accesses any visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct.
Individual citizens can also be held civilly liable under the law. If a person other than the minor’s parent or guardian intentionally removes or deactivates the filter and the minor access visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct.
Critics, including some lawmakers, have expressed concerns in the past that the bill could interfere with First Amendment rights, and similar bills have been challenged on such grounds in other states. Manufacturers have long argued that the bill unfairly targets them instead of the purveyors of explicit material.
Lawmakers have been taking a blanket approach to try to keep minors from accessing online pornography, passing age verification last session for adult websites, and other bills this session to require age verification when downloading apps.
The requirement will be placed on all devices manufactured after June 1 if signed into law.
