F38E54A61E3B21418725838B007D2C41 Hearing Summary

Senator Holbert, sponsor, presented SB 19-048, concerning protecting public school students from electronically accessing harmful material.  Senator Holbert explained that students are easily accessing inappropriate material on the Internet at schools and libraries through EBSCO, a provider of research databases. He distributed an article on the issue (Attachment A).  He expressed the need for parents to have a means of recourse and a tool to prevent this, as outlined in the bill.   

Jared Masterson, representing the Colorado Association of School Executives, Colorado Association of School Boards, and Rural Alliance, spoke in opposition to the bill.  He expressed concerns about local control, liability, and the bill's far reaching scope.  He discussed electronic filtering and answered questions from the committee. 

Brenda Fickenshur, representing herself, testified remotely from Lamar in support of the bill.  Mr. Fickenshur had concerns about kids breaking through firewalls and accessing graphic material.  She discussed harmful effects of exposure to inappropriate materials.  She answered questions from the committee. 

Barbara Hernandez, representing herself, testified remotely from Lamar in support of the bill.  She discussed the ease with which inappropriate material is easily and innocently discovered on the school's homework tab link and the associated trauma that may ensue.  She answered questions from the committee about homework tabs and filters. 

Claudia Gill, representing herself, testified remotely from Lamar in support of the bill.  She discussed Internet access at libraries, filters, and the lack of enforcement. 

Belinda Groner, representing herself, testified remotely from Lamar in support of the bill.  She expressed concerns about the homework help tab and cited studies about the dangers of internet pornography.  She answered questions from the committee about school boards and their role in monitoring Internet providers. 

Jeff Hunt, representing Colorado Christian University, testified in support of the bill.

Dr. Robin Paterson, representing Pornography Is Not Education, testified in support of the bill. She discussed aspects of student databases. She provided two handouts to the committee (Attachments B and C).  She answered questions from the committee. She discussed school database content that contains school names and pornographic material.

Drew Paterson, representing Pornography is Not Education, testified in support of the bill. He provided information and statistics about the harmful effects of pornography.

Dr. Robin Paterson read testimony in support of the bill from Jenna Ellis on behalf of Colorado Family Action.  The testimony stressed that filtering software does not work. 

James La Rue, representing himself, spoke in opposition to the bill.  He discussed the far-reaching implications of the bill and the safeguards that are already in place to filter obscene material. He brought up First Amendment issues and answered questions from the committee.

Tammy Sayles, representing the Colorado Association of Libraries, testified in opposition to the bill. She stressed that school districts are already required to filter online data bases and answered questions from the committee.

Jaxson Sharpe, representing himself as a student, spoke in opposition to the bill.  He expressed concern about the already limited amount of online resources becoming even more restricted.  He explained the importance of navigating the online world. 

Tristan Gorman, representing the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, spoke in opposition to the bill.  She discussed unintended consequences and expressed concerns that the definitions in the bill are overly broad.

Senator Holbert explained and presented Amendment L. 002 (Attachment D).