Parents beg Colorado lawmakers to hold social media platforms accountable by requiring age verification
Colorado may soon join a handful of states that require social media platforms to verify the age of their users.
A bill making its way through the Colorado State Capitol aims at companies like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, where the attorney general says it's just as easy for kids to buy illegal drugs as it is to order pizza or call an Uber.
Colorado district attorneys told a senate committee that sex traffickers are also using the sites to prey on kids, and social media companies are doing little -- if anything -- to help stop it, which is why lawmakers are stepping in.
A bill by state Sen.s Chris Hansen and Dafna Michaelson Jenet would require social media platforms verify a user's age, allow parents to control what their kids see, respond to law enforcement inquiries within three days, not notify users whose accounts are under investigation and block those selling to minors immediately.
Chelsea Congdon Brundige is among dozens of parents who turned out at a committee hearing to support the bill. Her son Miles died after taking a painkiller laced with fentanyl.
She says the 19-year-old was a sophomore at the University of Colorado Boulder when he hurt his shoulder and bought what he thought was Percocet on Snapchat.
"They don't enforce age limits. They won't prohibit sales where they can make money and they won't report illegal transactions. That is reckless profitmaking over protecting children," she said.
A handful of opponents also turned out to testify on the bill, calling it a violation of free speech.
"The purported objective of protecting our youth does not justify this bill's encroachment on every Coloradoans' right to free and safe use of social media," a Denver resident told lawmakers.
Aliya Bhatia with the Center for Democracy and Technology also warned against passing the bill.
"This bill puts all users' privacy at risk and creates barriers to equity and information online," she said.
But supporters say many of the bill's provisions have survived court challenges in other states. In addition to parents, some kids came out in support, including a Boulder High School student and founder of a tech startup.
"So, I think it goes without saying that I'm very passionate about technology, but it's from that very same technological perspective that I'm here to tell you that I am absolutely petrified about the impact of social media," he said.
If protections were in place for her son, Brundige says, he might still be alive, and the person who sold to him behind bars,
"We really need to understand that this is Russian roulette," she said. "I can't do it for Miles but I can do it for someone else's kid."
Brundige says Snapchat refused to co-operate in the investigation into her son's death.
The bill would also require platforms to preserve data for a year to help in law enforcement investigations, as well as publish their policies -- including where to report violations -- and submit yearly reports to the attorney general's office. Violations would be a deceptive trade practice.
The bill does not prescribe how age verification would happen. The AG's office would determine that.
But the bill's sponsors note gambling and banking sites already do age verification so it's not new. The senate business committee will vote on the bill next Tuesday.
