Rep. Rob Kreibich

Protecting kids should always be a top priority for public servants. This session, the Assembly passed several critical bills to ensure children are protected against online predators, shielded from pornography, and safeguarded from the dangers of social media.

Assembly Bill 201 (“Bradyn’s Law”), which passed the Assembly and Senate unanimously, designates “sextortion” as a crime. Sextortion is a form of child sexual exploitation that typically involves blackmailing or threatening children for money, often after coercing them into sending explicit images of themselves online. Now, victims and families have additional legal pathways to bring those who exploit or victimize children on the internet to justice.

Assembly Bills 957 and 958, which passed the Assembly and Senate unanimously, adds four critical positions to the Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce to ensure predators are targeted and prosecuted.

Assembly Bill 966, which passed the Assembly and Senate unanimously, directs the DOJ to conduct a children’s online safety campaign with the goal of raising awareness of the potential dangers of internet use by children. The findings must be available to parents, educators and children.

Assembly Bill 105, which passed by a vote of 69-22-2, would add Wisconsin to the growing lists of states that require adult content sites to implement reasonable age-verification methods to ensure minors are protected from accessing online content not suitable for children.

Assembly Bill 962, which passed by a vote of 58-37, would add age verification methods on app stores to ensure minors obtain parental consent prior to downloading an app.

Assembly Bill 963, which passed by a vote of 60-35, would similarly add age verification methods to major social media platforms to ensure minors are operating accounts with parental permission. The bill would also prohibit addictive design features, such as infinite scrolling, auto play video and engagement-based metrics for accounts used by minors. It also bans advertising in the feed of a minor’s account and requires privacy settings to default to the highest level of protection.

Assembly Bill 961, which passed by a vote of 61-34, would create uniform requirements for warning labels on explicit content. This bill requires online content distributors that publish sexual content for commercial purposes to display clear, concise and prominent warning labels to protect minors from unintentional exposure to harmful content.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to join my mailing list, please feel free to reach out to me at 608-237-9128 or at Rep.Kreibich@legis.wisconsin.gov.

Rep. Rob Kreibich represents Wisconsin’s 28th Assembly District, consisting of parts of St. Croix, Pierce and Dunn counties.