The measure came as an amendment to an otherwise unrelated bill that would require adult websites to verify users are 18 or older.
Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, center, sits at his desk in the Alaska House of Representatives on Jan. 16, 2024.
The amendment is attached to a bill that the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, listed as a priority for the last few weeks of the legislative session — a measure that wouldto ensure users are 18 or older. Similar age verification bills have passed in more than a dozen other states.
Soon after Gray introduced the amendment, Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, stood up to support it — it’s similar to a bill sponsored by the House Labor and Commerce Committee, which Sumner leads. “As a mom, I am horrified thinking about my kids being on social media or the internet one day. I think looking out for our kids is not a partisan issue,” said Rep. Jennie Armstrong, D-Anchorage, who also praised DeSantis for “taking the lead on this” issue.
But Alaska’s youngest sitting lawmaker spoke out against the ban. Twenty-six-year-old Rep. CJ McCormick, D-Bethel, recalled how social media helped him keep in touch with family — and played a key role in Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, raised free speech concerns, saying he was concerned the limits on social media were written so broadly that they would keep kids off broad swaths of the internet that allow user-generated content, from Amazon reviews to Google Docs to comments on news websites. Eastman also said age verification requirements could lead websites that don’t want to comply to exclude Alaskans of any age.
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