Alaska HB 47 (Social Media Age Check Amendment)

Alaska, United StatesAlaska HB 47Updated April 10, 2026

Stoppedno longer moving
Bad for your rightsDefeated

Passed the House 39-0 with age checks; a Senate committee stripped them April 9, 2026

A House floor amendment turned Alaska's bill on AI-generated child abuse imagery into a social media age verification law, and a Senate committee cut those sections back out.

Latest update

Committee substitute reported and referred to Senate Judiciary

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The bill

Official bill record

Key facts

Where
Alaska, United States
Bill number
Alaska HB 47
Status
Defeated
Threat
Medium
Last update
April 10, 2026

Topics

Age VerificationDigital IDCensorshipPrivacy

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What it does

HB 47 began as Rep. Sarah Vance's bill on AI-generated child sexual abuse material. On February 25, 2026, the House adopted Rep. Zack Fields' Amendment 5, 28-12, which added the "Alaska Social Media Regulation Act": platforms had to verify the age of every user in the state, minors needed parental consent for accounts, and parents got access to their children's accounts, with added limits on ads, feeds and nighttime use. The House passed the amended bill 39-0 on February 27. On April 9, the Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee removed the social media and age check sections with Vance's support, citing a Legislative Legal memo on the First Amendment and Alaska's constitutional privacy clause.

What’s at stake

The House text said a platform "shall verify the age of each user of the platform in the state." Adults in Alaska would have had to prove their age to use social media, under a mandate attached to a bill about a different subject.

Our take

The House voted unanimously for a mandate that the Legislature's own lawyers then said would run into the First Amendment and the privacy clause in Alaska's constitution. Senators read the memo and took it out. Attaching it to a bill on AI child abuse imagery made a vote against the whole package hard to cast.

Timeline

  1. Committee substitute reported and referred to Senate JudiciaryLatest

  2. Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee removed the social media and age check sections

  3. Referred to the Senate Community and Regional Affairs and Judiciary committees

  4. Passed the House 39-0, with 1 excused

  5. House adopted Amendment 5, adding social media age verification, 28-12

The record

Sponsors

Rep. Sarah Vance, Rep. Zack Fields

Votes

  • House: Amendment 5 adopted (age verification added) (28 to 12), February 25, 2026
  • House: Passed (39 to 0), February 27, 2026