Digital Education Safeguards Bill Passes in Education Committee

(Colorado State Capitol, April 10, 2024) -- Today, Representative Brandi Bradley (R-Roxborough Park) and Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winter's (R-Trinidad) bill, HB24-1247, aimed at increasing transparency for parents and children’s safety, passed through the Education Committee. 

“There is no reason why kids should be able to access pornographic and other harmful material - there is nothing educational about it,” said Rep. Bradley. “As parents, it is our right to have a say in our kids’ education and know what tools are being used to teach them. This bill will protect kids from harmful content by empowering school districts to tell the vendor - if you allow ads, we will not have you as a vendor,” added Bradley. 

Under current law, Colorado school districts have the ability, but are not required, to enforce the policy outlined in The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). This has proven to be ineffective as parents have had to resort to involving the courts in order to ensure their children are protected from harmful material in schools in Colorado. 

In 2018, a group of parents from Cherry Creek School District brought a lawsuit against EBSCO (one of the largest research database providers in the country, and the Colorado Library Consortium), claiming their kids were able to access pornographic and other inappropriate content through EBSCO provided links.

If adopted, the bill would require that contracts between a public school or district and a digital education provider include a termination clause ending the contract if, on three different occasions, the provider allowed students to access harmful material. 

The bill will now head to the Appropriation Committee for the allocation of funds to the Department of Education.