Background: Senate Bill 2380 would mandate age verification on the device and in app stores and would require all online services and websites to block access to mature content.
Our position: The ACLU of North Dakota opposes Senate Bill 2360.
Young people deserve our protection and support, but age-gating an online app store is not the answer. Rather than creating a digital surveillance state that imperils us all, we must shape a safer digital universe through evidence-based approaches that give control to people, not the government, like parental controls that already exist.
Age verification laws are ineffective at achieving their stated goal of preventing minors from accessing adult applications, but they are effective at violating adults’ rights to access constitutionally protected speech.
