ACLU Cites Privacy Concerns in Opposition to R.I. Age-Verification Bill
Rhode Island’s age-verification legislation raises privacy concerns for adults and minors who don’t want to share personal information with social media platforms, the American Civil Liberties Union told state lawmakers Thursday.
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The House Innovation Committee hearing testimony on HB-5291. Introduced by Rep. Tina Spears (D), HB-5291 would ban minors from registering social media accounts without parental consent. It would ban platforms from collecting “any personal information from the posts, content, messages, text, or usage activities” unless it’s needed to verify age.
The Department of Business Regulation would enforce the law. However, Spears noted the DBR has said it doesn’t have the resources currently to enforce the new measure, and legislators are considering other options.
The ACLU said adults should have the option of not providing their personal information to platforms, given privacy concerns. The group instead supported a second bill considered Thursday. Introduced by Rep. Teresa Tanzi (D), HB-6062 would direct the DBR to establish new rules and regulations for the collection and sharing on mobile device location data.