Idaho Senate committee debates device filter bill after hours of testimony; motion to send bill to floor fails 4-5

Senate State Affairs heard extended testimony Wednesday on Senate Bill 11‑58, the Children’s Device Protection Act, which would require manufacturers to enable native device search filters for minors by default and allow adults to turn those filters off.

The sponsor, Sen. Kevin Cook (R‑LD32), told the committee the bill would ask manufacturers to turn on software already present on devices so minors would not be exposed to explicit material through native search engines. "It is not a hard thing to do," Cook said, adding that the measure is narrowly tailored to native search engines and would not require retailers or wireless carriers to change operations.

Supporters, including parents, mental‑health professionals and representatives of advocacy groups, described personal and clinical harms they said followed early exposure to explicit material. Scott Coleman, director of the Safe Passage Children’s Advocacy Center…