Lawmakers in Wyoming are considering two pieces of legislation that, while aiming to protect children, may actually push the state into a lengthy court battle.
HB 43 is an age-verification bill that requires websites with “harmful materials” to implement an ID verification system. It allows parents or guardians of a minor who is “aggrieved” by a violation to bring a civil action against an online platform for allowing access.
The bill presents a number of technical, privacy and practical challenges. Because of Wyoming’s small population, websites may simply block users rather than risk litigation.
Age verification laws have had a tricky time passing constitutional muster, and have been blocked by the courts in California, Utah, Arkansas, Ohio and Mississippi.
HB 19 in Wyoming would require parental consent to use social media. It delegates rulemaking to the state’s Attorney General. Again, social media parental consent laws have been preliminarily blocked by courts in Ohio and Mississippi.
We have previously written about the need to protect children online, but there is an important balance to ensure we do not weaken constitutional rights. There is also a legitimate question as to whether it is the government’s job to police the internet or social media.
Tech companies have introduced various ideas to help with the effort as well. But it should be noted that filters, blockers, and screen time monitors already exist. Companies may choose to adopt a policy like app store verification, if the market calls for one. The question, then, is whether the strong arm of government should mandate one?
One idea would be to follow other states like Florida in implementing digital literacy and safety into school curricula.
But passing a bill that will likely be struck down as violating the First Amendment won’t make a single child safer. Instead, we need to do the hard work, together, of finding policy solutions that place the family, not the government, at the center of a child’s upbringing, and give them safety tools they can use free of government coercion or censorship.