The Virginia legislature passed kids social media and student privacy bills on Thursday. The Senate voted 39-0 to agree with House substitutes on SB-854 and SB-1486. The House voted 97-0 and 98-0, respectively, for the bills earlier that day.
The Washington Senate Business Committee cleared a kids privacy bill (SB-5708) in a voice vote Thursday, despite Republican dissent.
The South Carolina House passed a kids social media bill requiring age verification Thursday. Members voted 89-14 to send H-3431 to the Senate.
Policy debates about age verification methods and privacy should be informed by recent developments in technology, not the assumption that privacy and security are always at odds, Luke Hogg, director of technology policy, and Evan Swarztrauber, senior fellow, Foundation for American Innovation, said in a research paper posted Tuesday.
Industry can’t figure out a constitutional way to word a kids’ privacy bill, a TechNet official said at a Washington state legislative hearing Tuesday.
Connecticut’s age-verification bill includes only minor changes from current state privacy and social media regulations, Sen. James Maroney (D) said Wednesday.
A South Dakota Senate panel advanced an age-verification bill that the House passed last month (see 2501220002). The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-0 Tuesday to clear HB-1053, which requires age verification to limit websites containing harmful material to users 18 and older. The panel tabled the similar SB-18 and deferred another bill (SB-180) that would require age verification on app stores.
President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking greater control of independent agencies like the FTC will politicize the regulatory process and result in further bureaucratic delay, Democratic senators and stakeholders told us in interviews Wednesday. Capitol Hill Republicans and Democrats were divided along party lines in support and against Trump’s executive action.
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.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation expects an "onslaught" of privacy issues in Congress this year, said Maddie Daly, EFF assistant director-federal affairs, in an interview with Privacy Daily. Some of EFF's top priorities, including a national privacy bill, may be "idealistic," but it's still important to push for them, Daly said.