Kansas is moving to join Texas and other states in requiring porn sites to verify people’s ages

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) — Kansas is set to require pornography websites to verify that visitors are adults, a move that will follow texas And some other states despite concerns about privacy and how broadly the law could be enforced.

The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature passed the proposal Tuesday and sent it to Democratic Governor Laura Kelly. The House voted in favor of 92-31 And the Senate approved it unanimously last month. Kelly has not announced her plans, but she typically signs bills with bipartisan support, and supporters have enough votes to override a veto anyway.

At least eight states have enacted age-verification laws by 2022 – Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah and VirginiaAnd lawmakers have introduced proposals in more than 20 other states, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Plural bill-tracking service.

A few weeks ago, a federal appeals court upheld Texas’ age-verification requirement as constitutional and a oklahoma sent home uniform solution For State Senate.

Supporters argue that they are protecting children from widespread pornography online. The sponsor of the legislation, Oklahoma Representative Tony Hasenbeck, said that pornography is now dramatically more available, when “there could be some boy in the sixth grade who finds a Playboy magazine in a ditch somewhere.”

“It’s common in our society for a child to be alone in their bedroom with their digital device,” said Hasenbeck, a Republican who represents a rural southwest Oklahoma district.

In Kansas, some critics questioned whether the measure would violate free speech and press rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Last year, that issue was raised in a federal lawsuit over the Texas law on behalf of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry.

The conservative, three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Texas’s age-verification requirement did not violate the First Amendment. The judges concluded Such a law may persist as long as a state has a rational basis for it and states have a legitimate interest in preventing minors’ access to pornography.

kansas bill Failure to verify that a Kansas visitor is 18 years of age if a website contains material “harmful to minors” would be considered a violation of state consumer protection laws. The Attorney General can then go to court seeking fines of up to $10,000 for each violation. Parents can also sue for at least $50,000 in damages.

But critics of the bill, mostly Democrats, argued that the law could be interpreted so broadly that LGBTQ+ teens could not access information about sexual orientation or gender identity because acts of “homosexuality” fall within the legal definition of sexual conduct. Are included. That means “being who we are” is defined as harmful to minors, said Representative Brandon Woodard, who is gay and a Kansas City-area Democrat.

Woodard also said that opponents do not understand “how technology works.” He said people can bypass the age-verification requirement by accessing pornography through the dark web or unregulated social media sites.

Other lawmakers questioned whether the state could prevent websites based outside Kansas from maintaining people’s personal information.

“The information used to verify a person’s age could fall into the hands of entities that could use it for fraudulent purposes,” said Rep. of Southeastern Kansas, one of two Republicans who voted against the bill. Representative Ken Collins said.

Yet critics acknowledged that parents and other constituents have a strong interest in preventing minors from viewing pornography. Another southeastern Kansas Republican, Representative Chuck Smith, rebuked the House because it did not approve the bill unanimously, as the Senate did.

“Children need to be kept safe,” he said. “Everyone here knows what pornography is – everyone.”

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.

Copyright 2024 The associated Press, All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.