Missouri lawmakers have found a bi-partisan issue: making it harder for minors to access porn sites by requiring websites to verify the age of users.
Several bills have been proposed by Democrat Senator Doug Beck of Afton, and Republican Reps. Brad Banderman of St. Clair, Sherri Gallick of Belton and Mike McGirl of Petosi.
“This is a child protection bill,” Gallick told the Missouri Independent. “I care deeply about children, and raising a child should be the single most important thing that anyone does. I was asked to consider legislation to protect children from pornography.”
Beck introduced age verification legislation specifically dealing with online adult dating platforms. Originally, Beck filed an age verification bill targeting pornographic material, similar to the House proposals, but withdrew it, citing errors in the drafting process. A similar bill was proposed during the 2023 legislative session by Republican Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville. He introduced the same bill again this year, targeting age verification through a different means, regulating internet service providers.
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More states restrict minors accessing porn sites
A total of 27 states have at least one law enacted or are considering legislation. Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, Mississippi and North Carolina implemented similar laws in 2023. In June, a Texas age-restriction law went into effect.
Kansas attempted similar legislation in 2023 but SB 160/HB 2301 on age verification – died in a Republican-controlled committee.
Legally produced and consensual pornographic content produced for U.S. consumers is granted protection under the First Amendment. In a controversial 1996 Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found age segregation on the internet to be unconstitutional.
Gallick expressed no concern about criticism that her legislation posed a threat to civil liberties, saying that “protecting children is what is important to me The internet is everywhere. We need an age-based verification system to protect our youth. We are shaping their behaviors, their lifestyles and their realities by what they see on the internet.”
Age verification approaches promoted by the adult entertainment industry include device-based verification. In a blog post published by Pornhub in the summer of 2023, the adult site said relying on IP addresses and unique hash data, without a government identification or image, is a more secure approach. In Texas, an age verification law was passed in 2023 that required adult websites to publish claims of porn addiction in addition to verifying the age of each user who visits a porn website from a local IP address.
New laws are already changing the way porn sites operate. In December, the site Pornhub announced it would block their site to all users in North Carolina ahead of that state’s age restriction taking effect.
Contrary to popular urban myths that conservative or religious states consume more porn, an exhaustive survey found the opposite.
In a 2020 article in the sociological journal Socius, researchers Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead wrote how their survey of 15,738 U.S. adults found people in conservative (which tend to be more religious) consume less porn that other states. “Individual-level religiosity and political conservatism predict less recent pornography consumption,” they wrote.
“The preponderance of studies reports far lower rates of porn use in religious individuals compared with non-religious individuals,” Hess wrote. “In fact, comparisons between religious and non-religious rates are not even close.”
–Alan Goforth and Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice