Meeting Public Comments

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SF 207

A bill for an act relating to civil liability for certain commercial entities who publish or distribute obscene material on the internet.(See SF 443.)

Agenda

Subcommittee members: Alons-CH, Bennett, Campbell

Date: Monday, February 10, 2025

Time: 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM

Location: Room 217 Conference Room

Comments Submitted:

The purpose of comments is to provide information to members of the subcommittee.

Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

02-08-2025

Evelyn Nikkel [PELLA PAC]

We are in favor of SF 207 with higher penalties for companies who engage in such practices. They are in it for the money so it has to hit their pocket books. They've made the internet a sewage trap for young, immature, curious children and they need to be held accountable. Only triple the aggregate amount of a plaintiff's reasonable attorney fees and costs should be higher. Yes, in favor of SF207 with higher penalties.

02-10-2025

Joe Monahan [Together 4 Education (TEAM) Ames]

Please supper this bill.I have spent considerable time this year reviewing email communications between Iowa librarians regarding these issues. Of the dozens of librarians from all around Iowa who joined in the discussion on how to undermine SF496, not a single one ever suggested any sort of moderation or middle way. Their entire focus was on how to use public money to undermine Iowa law.SF496 was designed to limit the obscene and racist material from young students. Instead, it blew the doors wide open. Libraries like the Ames Public Library immediterlty formed partnerships with the local schools that gave all students, regardless of age, immediate, unfiltered access to all the adult content in the public libraries.The students even in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades had the content the legislature restricted (and much worse), right in front of them on their school computers : sexually explicit graphic novels, violent Rrated streaming videos, adult audio books, etc. Our libraries have become political action committees that use public money to pursue their personal political and. social ideologies. The ONLY way to slow them down is to provide clear and enforceable rules. The 4 minute video I made that shows the extent of the problem. It is totally out of hand.https://youtu.be/DewnVMN7Gc?si=N5XzpHxr0pJw0X4

02-10-2025

Rick Phillips [PELLA PAC]

We support passage of SF207. Civil penalties are okay but what about repeated offenses? It seems these days that the sexualization of children industry claims a right to abuse children. If a covered platform continues to offend, is it possible to ban such platform from operating in Iowa? If the federal government can ban TikTok in the entire United States, does Iowa have the ability to ban a covered platform in Iowa that continues violating Iowa law? And, what about naming individual managers and directors of a covered platform as a respondent or defendant in any such litigation? The more people made liable the better to maintain a stronger wall of checks and balances. The losses must be so great to work as a deterrent to protect Iowa children from obscene material.