Idaho Legislature: Ask Legislators to VOTE NO on S1158 - Children's device protection (posted 03/07/25)

• Bill: legislature.idaho.gov/s…

• Contact Legislators (link below):

(Check the linked page or use My Bill Tracker for the bill’s current status.)

_____________________

S1158 would force manufacturers of smart phones and tablets to enable existing filters for Idaho's children in the name of protecting their mental health and shielding them from objectionable material online.

This bill is nanny-state government overreach into private business. It’s also incredibly invasive of personal privacy, requiring the device to determine a user’s age during setup. Also, filters may be imperfect, hacked, or easily skirted as technology changes and the bad guys get more clever. BUYER BEWARE.

Parents – not the state and not manufacturers – should be responsible for turning filters on or off before giving these devices to their children. Parents also must closely monitor their children’s activities; monitoring is not the job of the state or the device manufacturer. What is to stop a child from using or an unwitting parent from providing another device without such filters turned on? And what’s to stop a user from lying about his/her age during setup?

Details:

• Mandates that devices must automatically determine the user's age during setup, enable a filter for minor users, allow for password-based filter management, and notify users when a website is blocked.

• Can hold manufacturers civilly liable if a minor accesses obscene material on a non-compliant device.

• Manufacturers can avoid liability by making a good faith effort to provide a commercially reasonable filter.

• Attorney General can take legal action against non-compliant manufacturers, with potential penalties of up to $5,000 per violation and a total of $50,000 in aggregate, and can seek to revoke a manufacturer's business license.