A quiet day at the statehouse saw one bill return from the dead. HB 1650, a proposal to regulate how digital products and services are designed for children, moved from dead to active status on Thursday.
On the Move
HB 1650 — Age-Appropriate Design Code Sponsored by Rep. Melissa Litchfield (R), this bill would require digital products and services likely to be accessed by minors to meet specific design and privacy standards. It mirrors legislation already enacted in California and the United Kingdom. Those laws generally require platforms to configure default privacy settings to the highest level for child users, limit data collection on minors, and restrict features that could be harmful to children’s wellbeing. The bill had previously been listed as dead and is now back under active consideration.
The core question the bill raises: should New Hampshire set its own baseline for how tech companies design products that children use, or leave that to federal policy and existing state consumer protection law. If passed, the requirements would fall on companies that offer digital services accessible to children — which in practice covers a wide range of apps, websites, and platforms.
No vote on final passage has been scheduled. The return to active status typically means the bill has cleared a procedural hurdle or been referred back to a committee for further work, though no specific committee action was listed in today’s data.
Not much else moved today. No bills were signed into law, no bills were formally killed, and no roll call votes were recorded.
Want to know how your specific representatives have voted on bills like this one? Find your NH House and Senate members at nhpolitics.org/find-your-rep.