KY bill seeks to make social media, other digital platforms safer for children

A bill designed to make social media, video games and other digital platforms safer for children easily passed out of committee on Wednesday in Frankfort, despite concerns it either won’t work or does not go far enough.House Bill 463, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, would require digital platforms to verify a user’s age and then take a variety of steps to protect minors, including:Limits on collecting personal data of minors and using targeted marketing on minors.Prohibiting obscene material from being shown to minorsRequiring parental controls to control and limit useWednesday’s hearing included testimony from a mother who only identified herself as Jen, in order to protect the privacy of her family. She testified about how an adult man used the chat feature of a popular children’s game to try and convince her son to run away from home.”The only way to protect our son at this point was to shut off the Internet completely,” she testified. The bill does not include criminal fines but does allow Kentucky’s attorney general or the parents or guardian of a minor to file a civil lawsuit, and the process for verifying someone’s age is left up to the digital service provider.Some questioned whether that would work. “Kids under 18 could just go in and put a different birthdate or something along those lines,” said Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge.Others want to see the bill go further, but Dietz said she felt constrained by pending lawsuits over similar legislation in other states. “I completely understand legally why this needs to be a first step,” said Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville. “But I’m hopeful, given the intent you’ve purported and the urgent need for it, that we can come back and revisit this in the future.”