On Tuesday last week, State Representative Brad Paquette (R-Niles) and State Senator John Cherry (D-Flint) introduced a bipartisan bill package that would implement a decision-based age verification mechanism to protect children from mature content online. The mechanism implemented by Paquette’s and Cherry’s House Bills House Bill 4429 and Senate Bill 284 would verify age via device operating system, share age ranges with sites and apps requiring verification, and allow parents to implement parental control and require guardian consent for minors’ downloads.

“This legislation will make significant strides to protect children online as both sides of the aisle recognize the urgent priority,” Paquette said. “We are drawing from successful approaches used across the country. Our hope is that our colleagues see this proposal for what it is – model legislation on how to navigate this problem.”

Device-based verification both solves legal and fragmentation issues by operating with per-platform methods and enhances privacy by eliminating repeated data sharing across multiple services. Senator Cherry’s introduction of identical bills in the Senate demonstrates a push in both caucuses and both chambers in the Legislature to pass this proposal into law.

House Bill 4429 was referred to the House Committee on Communications and Technology.