Senate committee hears industry objections and legal support for S.69 age-appropriate design code

The Vermont Senate Committee on Information Technology and Institutions on Feb. 26 heard competing testimony on S.69, the Age Appropriate Design Code Act, with industry representatives urging an exemption for satellite-based streaming services and legal advocates and the attorney general’s office defending the bill’s design-focused, constitutionally vetted approach.

The bill’s supporters told the committee the measure targets platform design and upstream features that create risk for children rather than specific speech, while industry witnesses argued some streaming services do not present the user-generated-content risks the bill aims to address.

Damon Stewart, an attorney testifying for DISH Network and DIRECTV, asked the committee to narrow the bill to exclude those companies’ streaming services. Stewart said the two companies jointly serve “approximately 60,000 streaming customers in the state” and that their streaming offerings (DISH’s Sling and DIRECTV streaming) deliver “licensed media” rather than user-generated uploads. “Unlike, say, Facebook or TikTok or Snapchat ... there is no ability with…