Legislative session – Memphis Flyer

Tennesseans could soon be required to provide a form of ID to access certain websites as a new bill moves through the legislature.

The bill titled the “Protect Tennessee Minors Act,” was recommended for passage from the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee with 10 ayes and zero nays Tuesday morning.

According to Sen. Becky Massey (R-Knoxville), who introduced the bill, the legislation looks at material that is “sexually explicit and harmful to minors,” or appeals to prurient interest. While it is not spelled out in the bill’s summary, this includes pornography.

“The Protect Tennessee Minors Act requires an individual or commercial entity that publishes or distributes in this state a website that contains a substantial portion of material harmful to minors perform reasonable age-verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material,” the bill reads.

Such entities would also be required to “retain at least seven years of historical anonymized age-verification data.” However, they are not allowed to store any personally identifying information.

Those who violate the act would face a Class C felony.

“The number of Class C felony convictions that may result from violations of the legislation’s requirements is unknown,” the fiscal memorandum reads. “Given the widespread nature of such content on the internet and the number of sites that distribute it, it is assumed that the increase in such convictions could be significant.”

Massey went on to say that this bill would have a similar process that alcohol sites use when asking users to confirm their age before entering the site, but with “higher standards.”

“You can enter a picture of a state-issued ID or an acceptable ID then you can be on this site for up to 60 minutes, and then you’d have to go off of the site if you’re not still actively using it,” Massey said.

Megan Moore, committee attorney, said that users would have to “match a photo of themselves,” that is “matched with a valid ID that is ‘a valid form of identification issued by the United States of America.’”

Moore added that if users do not have an ID there is a second method that can be used to verify age. This alternative is defined as “a commercially reasonable method relying on public or private transactional data to verify that the age of the person attempting to access the information is at least 18 or old.”

When asked by Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) what this information would be, Moore said they were unsure.

Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) has introduced a bill to ensure that children in Tennessee not only get equitable healthcare, but they’re able to keep it.

Lamar’s bill would implement continuous eligibility for children who are enrolled in TennCare and CoverKids. Senate Bill 1828, introduced by Lamar and Memphis Democrat Rep. Antonio Parkinson, would ensure that children who have healthcare coverage under these programs are continuously having their coverage renewed.

If passed, Lamar said this bill would solve the problem of children losing state healthcare coverage due to “procedural reasons — not eligibility.”

“[SB 1828] prohibits the bureau from subjecting the minor to a redetermination of eligibility or disenrollment except under certain circumstances,” reads the bill.

Lamar said accountability measures are included to ensure fraud isn’t being committed, and parents are not applying for any children who are deceased.

Lamar said she wanted to focus on topics that impact families the most. She said the most vulnerable populations in the state tend to be children, and she wanted to push for all children to have access to healthcare.

“I know one population we can make a direct impact on is those children who are under state healthcare insurance programs,” said Lamar. “What we did find out was that many kids were taken off the health insurance plans because of clerical issues.”

The 2023 State of The Child in Tennessee report from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth showed that 29,154 children in the state were disenrolled from Medicaid due to procedural reasons, while 6,838 were disenrolled from Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the same reason.

“A significant component to ensuring children have access to health care is to protect those who are already insured or are eligible for insurance from losing coverage due to procedural mistakes on an application,” the commission said in a statement.

Lamar said she doesn’t think procedural issues are enough to take children off of healthcare plans. She said it’s common that people change addresses and move out of state, and wanted to make sure the state does its due diligence.

“Our families and our state are stronger when every child has access to health care,” said Lamar. “When children get the health care they need, they are more likely to succeed in school, graduate from high school and attend college, earn higher wages, and grow up into healthy adults.”

While Lamar is adamant about pushing for the legislation to be passed, she anticipates that TennCare won’t want to approve it, as she believes it will want to continue its current re-enrollment process

“I think it will definitely be an uphill battle with folks across the aisle,” Lamar said. “We’re going to push the issue as best as we can to get the support we need to get this bill across the finish line. But no doubt about it, it’s going to be tough.”