A total of 16 states have passed a new law requiring users of pornographic content to be over the age of 18.
The following states have passed or have agreed to pass age-restriction laws: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
Each state offers its own edition of the age verification law, but the precept exists in every state.
In Kansas, which passed a law that will go into effect July 1, Web sites that contain curtains deemed “harmful to minors” on at least 25 percent of their pages will have to determine the user’s age using a database or an approved age verification generation. through the State Attorney General’s Office.
Supporters of the law said the law would affect children.
“The harm pornography is causing to our young Kansans forces us to create barriers to its access,” Kansas Republican Rep. Susan Humphries said of the bill in April.
One of the law’s proponents in Oklahoma, Republican state Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, said the law is mandatory in the state “because it’s not unusual in our society for a child to be alone with their virtual device in their bedroom. “
He said there was a lot more pornography than in the past, when “there might be a sixth-grader who would find a Playboy magazine in some ditch. “
The proposed spending has met resistance from the porn industry and some engaged in lax speech, fighting the new proposals in the interest of privacy-preserving adult users.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by the Free Speech Coalition to block an age verification law in Texas.
Texas Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen told Catholic News Agency, “A coalition of sellers has unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to block the requirement that sites conduct age verification and now Texas’ young children are further away from their filth. I will continue to fight to protect young people from sexualization. “
Pornhub, one of the most visited sites in the world, has absolutely blocked its access to users in Texas as a sign of protest against the law.
Coalition for Free Speech executive director Alison Boden said: “Despite the claims of its supporters, online age verification is the same as showing ID at a cash register. The procedure is invasive and time-consuming, with significant dangers to the privacy of adult consumers. “
Vera Eidelman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who represented the Free Speech Coalition in the Texas case, said this is an example of a case where “concerns about access by minors have led lawmakers to pass unconstitutional laws. “
“While purportedly seeking to restrict minors’ access to sexual content online, the law imposes significant restrictions on adults’ access to constitutionally protected expression, requiring them to provide personally identifiable data online to access intimate and sensitive content,” it continued.
“We’ve experienced this time and time again, with everything from drive-in videos to video games to websites, and courts have struck down laws that impose necessities that prevent adults from accessing non-obscene sexual content in the interest of protecting children. “.
One of the few Republicans to vote against this type of legislation, Southeast Kansas state Rep. Ken Collins, said, “The data used to determine a person’s age can fall into the hands of entities that can use it for fraudulent purposes. “
Others worry that limits are being placed on freedoms granted through anonymity without making sufficient profits, given that young people will continue to access pornography through the dark web or unregulated social media sites.
Kansas Democratic Rep. Brandon Woodard said supporters of the new restrictions “don’t know how generation works. “
Pornography exists on 12% of all Internet sites and is viewed by 69% of American men and 40% of American women, on average, annually, according to last spring’s report from the Ballard Brief Research Library.
The report also shows that “many young people are exposed to pornography for the first time between the ages of nine and 13. “
Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, UK. It focuses on human interest stories in Africa and the Middle East. She has covered extensively the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police brutality and poverty in South Africa, and gender issues. He founded violence all over the world. Jordan joined Newsweek in 2024 from The Evening Standard and has previously worked at Metro. co. uk. He graduated from Kingston University and also worked on documentaries. You can reach Jordan by emailing j. king. @newsweek. com. Languages: English.
© 2024 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC