Bill aimed at limiting porn access by minors dies in committee

BOISE — A Senate committee on Wednesday killed a bill that would mandate cellphone manufacturers to add content controls to prohibit pornography on devices owned by minors.

Senate State Affairs committee members voted 4-5 in opposition to SB 1158, known as the Children’s Device Protection Act. The bill would have required internet filtering on electronic devices owned by minors in the state of Idaho, and would hold device manufacturers civilly liable if a device is activated in the state without a filter, or if a minor accesses “obscene material” on the device. Fines for violation of the law would be between $5,000 and $50,000.

Manufacturers that make a “good-faith effort” to provide devices that automatically filter content would not be prosecuted under the bill.

Bill sponsor Sen. Kevin Cook, R-Idaho Falls, said the bill is not a catch-all preventer of pornography access, emphasizing parental involvement as the most important measure.

“Parents still have to be parents,” Cook said. “There is no false sense of security … you still got to be a parent.”

Cook clarified in the meeting that only the “native search engines” on devices would be impacted, meaning that social media, external search engines and other means of internet access would be left open.

Questions from committee members arose relating to the bill’s enforcement and effectiveness.

Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth, asked about falsifying age as a way to get around the proposed law.

“The minor … could potentially put in a false age, am I understanding that correctly?” Shippy asked.

Cook responded, “You can still work around the system — like I said, there is nothing 100% out there. We don’t live in a perfect world.”

Hearing on the bill lasted over an hour, with the majority of testimony in support. In total, 16 testifiers spoke in favor, with five speakers against the legislation. Passionate advocates mentioned traveling several hours from far reaches of the state to make it to the 8 a.m. hearing due to the bill’s personal significance to them.

Craig Cobia, a representative from the nonprofit Citizens for Decency, spoke in support of the bill. Cobia said the organization was founded at the request of a woman whose husband died by suicide after a longtime struggle with pornography addiction.

“We have advanced far beyond those days of a bad magazine found in the gutter,” Cobia said. “Information is at our fingertips. It is our responsibility to protect those who are not able to protect themselves.”

Testifiers in opposition to the bill generally agreed on pornography as an issue, but said that the bill was not equipped to handle it.

Fred Birnbaum of the Idaho Freedom Foundation argued that the bill’s centering of device manufacturers instead of pornography makers made it ineffective.

“This bill goes after the device manufacturers, not the purveyors of pornography,” Birnbaum said. “They’re the ones that would be liable, not the purveyors.”

Amy Bos, a representative from the national pro-free internet expression organization NetChoice, made points that the legislation could easily be dodged by falsifying records and location online, emphasizing educational policies in other states as a more effective avenue.

“This bill represents a slippery slope toward broader government intervention in private family matters,” Bos said. “Rather than mandating filters, we believe Idaho could follow states like Virginia and Florida in implementing internet safety education in schools. These approaches empower parents with information rather than replacing their judgment with government mandates that could easily be struck down.”

The Idaho Press previously spoke with an Idaho psychologist who studied porn addiction and compulsion, and found the issue was more indicative of a compulsive cycle.

The underlying issue wasn’t necessarily the participants’ viewing behavior, but the feelings of stress and shame around their behavior, Cameron Staley said at the time. Staley’s study was one of the first of its kind that didn’t support the idea of “porn addiction.”

The committee on Wednesday narrowly defeated the bill, after extensive deliberation about its effectiveness.

Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, emphatically expressed his agreement on pornography as an issue, but did not support the bill due to concerns over efficacy, calling on parents to take responsibility by not giving phones to underage children.

“What I think is the reality is that this is more of a paper tiger,” Toews said. “If parents believe for a second that this legislation protects their children when they hand them a phone, we are doing the parents of Idaho a great disservice.”

Schwicht may be contacted at newsroom@idahopress.com.