Experts tell Education Committee school-issued devices expose young children to harmful content; bill requires audits, parental notice and updated policies

Witnesses told the Education Committee that school-issued devices and school Wi-Fi have exposed young children to violent and sexual content and that current filtering approaches are insufficient. Deborah Taylor Tate, a former FCC commissioner who helped oversee E-rate funding, said the E-rate program helped connect schools and libraries but urged updated safeguards: "We cannot continue to wait for action now that we know our children are being harmed. We need your help now, today, for our children." Elle Benson, a parent, described finding her third-grader accessing murder videos and receiving explicit solicitations on a school device; she told members the Children's Internet Protection Act has not been updated in 12 years.

House Bill 18-86 (as amended) would expand internet acceptable-use policy requirements to public charter schools, require LEAs and charters to review policies at least twice a year, require third-party compliance audits and publication of results, require parental notification when a student under 18 accesses restricted content on school-provided internet, and authorize LEAs to create identification-only email addresses for young students while prohibiting those accounts from sending or receiving emails. The committee heard testimony from a pediatrician and screen-time researcher (Dr. Niddhi Gupta) and a licensed family therapist (Dr. Stacy Jagger) who described clinical cases of harm linked to online exposure; after discussion and an amendment to give districts additional implementation time, the committee advanced the bill to finance.