Republican Raises Business Concerns with Vermont Kids' Code Bill at Hearing
Vermont Sen. Wendy Harrison (D) aims to protect kids’ data privacy with a state age-appropriate design code bill (S-69), she said during a webcast hearing Tuesday. However, even before hearing from witnesses, Sen. Russ Ingalls (R) said he didn’t think he could support the bill. “I’m really nervous for businesses,” he said.
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S-69 is the Senate version of a kids code bill that Rep. Monique Priestley (D) introduced last week in the House (see 2502130013). Democrats control the House and Senate in Vermont, but Gov. Phil Scott is a Republican. Scott raised concerns with kids code rules last year when he vetoed a bill that included them alongside proposed comprehensive privacy and data broker regulations (see 2406140017).
The bill addresses privacy concerns about child “data being used to harm children,” who generally don’t know their data is being collected, said Harrison at the Tuesday hearing. It would require that the highest level of privacy is set for kids by default, she said. Also, covered businesses would “need to share their data practices clearly,” she said.
S-69 focuses on “algorithms” rather than “content,” which is important to ensuring that children may still access content without becoming addicted, said Harrison. That focus is also key to making sure that the proposed law doesn’t run afoul of the First Amendment, she said.
Ingalls raised concerns about the legislation's impact on industry. “You’re trying to blame businesses for a problem that’s not driven by businesses,” he argued. “I would have a hard time supporting any part of this bill. But I’m going to be open to listen and see what we can learn.”
Officials from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Design It For Us, an advocate for kids-code bills in various states, supported S-69 in testimony.