BATON ROUGE – The House Commerce Committee advanced a bill Monday that would regulate the process for reporting suspected child exploitation on online sites.

These platforms include online platforms, online video games, messaging apps and video streaming services. The regulation would apply only to for-profit platforms, not non-profits.

Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, filed the bill to strengthen the process of tracking down online predators by requiring those platforms to have an easy, clear and usable reporting mechanism.

“For all of my child protection bills, I ultimately just want big tech to just do the right thing when it comes to protecting children,” Schlegel said.

The bill would grant Attorney General Liz Murrill the ability to investigate and initiate legal action against online platforms that allegedly violate the required reporting mechanisms. Platforms would be given 30 days before a potential investigation to fix their reporting system and could be fined $5,000.

Concerns regarding the long-term effects of the bill, if passed into law, left some lawmakers worried about future implications.

“We can’t pass laws based on who’s in office at this point,” said Rep. Daryl Deshotel, R-Marksville. “We have to think about further down the road, and I wouldn’t want that office to have the ability to target specific organizations based on what they’re trying to produce.”

The committee also advanced a bill filed by Rep. Vincent Cox, R-Gretna, that would require subscription services to provide an easy way for consumers to cancel their subscriptions. It would also require the services to notify subscribers of any changes, updates or renewals to their subscriptions.

Another bill the committee advanced would direct the Office of Elderly Affairs to provide seniors with educational materials that include information about pension and retirement account protection and warning signs of financial exploitation. The bill was filed by Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans.