A trio of bills aimed at regulating the internet to protect children in Colorado have run into a wall of opposition — along with “concerns” from the governor — over worries they’d infringe on First Amendment rights.

The sponsors of Senate Bill 201, which would have required age verification to access online pornographic materials, killed their bill on the floor this week in an acknowledgement that Gov. Jared Polis would likely veto the measure. Two other bills aimed at adding social media regulations, in part to protect underage youth from criminal activity, are also in danger of being vetoed.

Taken together, the hurdles facing the three bills show the push and pull of balancing the protection of the state’s youth with concerns about impeding the free flow of information and violating rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

One of the social media measures, House Bill 1287, would require social media companies like Meta and X to implement age-verification systems and parental controls for underage users. It is stalled in the House as backers try to address concerns that it would give the government too much influence over the platforms.

The other proposal, Senate Bill 86, has passed the legislature. Its backers organized a news conference Monday to urge Polis to sign it. Early next week, opponents of the bill — including the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the NAACP and ProgressNow Colorado, a liberal advocacy group — are planning a news conference Tuesday to urge Polis to veto it.

That bipartisan bill would require stricter enforcement of terms of service on the platforms, require them to publish reports about how minors use the platforms and require stricter cooperation with law enforcement. At the event urging Polis to sign it into law, supporters warned of kids being “sextorted” by online predators or getting access to illegal guns and drugs through social media. They brought out families whose children died from tainted drugs they bought on social media.

“(This bill) simply says that for users egregiously harming our kids, they cannot be given endless chances — chance after chance, time after time — to continue victimizing others,” Sen. Lisa Frizell, a Castle Rock Republican who is sponsoring the bill, said.