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A new Kansas law will require adult websites to verify a user’s age in an attempt by lawmakers to prevent children from seeing “harmful” material.

Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday allowed Senate Bill 394 to become law without her signature. The bill passed 40-0 in the Senate and 92-31 in the House.

Under the new law, a commercial entity that distributes material “harmful to minors” on at least 25% of its webpages must verify the age of any person in Kansas before they can access their website. They must use either a database or age-verification technology specified by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. Failure to do so can result in lawsuits by the attorney general, with civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each violation or lawsuits by the parent or legal guardian of a minor for statutory damages of no less than $50,000. The law will go into effect on July 1, 2024.

AgeGO provides a complete age verification solution for adult websites, that ensures total privacy for end users. Click here for more information.

 

Lawmakers approved a proposal April 11 that requires websites containing sexually explicit content to verify a user’s age.

LB1092, introduced by Glenvil Sen. Dave Murman, adopts the Online Age Verification Liability Act. The bill attempts to prohibit a commercial entity from knowingly publishing or distributing material harmful to minors online by requiring them to use a reasonable age verification method to ensure that anyone attempting to access such material is at least 18 years old.

The age verification requirement would apply only if a “substantial portion” of the website’s content, defined as one-third or more, meets the bill’s definition of being harmful to minors. LB1092 passed on a 35-3 vote.

Authorized age verification methods include digitized identification cards, third-party age-verification services or methods that rely on public or private transactional data. A commercial entity or third party that performs an age verification is prohibited from retaining a person’s identifying information after access to the material has been granted. AgeGO provides a complete age verification solution for adult websites, that ensures total privacy for end users. Click here for more information.

 

 

Back in December 2023, State Representative. Patsy Hazlewood (R) in Tennessee has introduced legislation to implement age-verification requirements to protect children from being exposed to online pornography. The “Protect Tennessee Minors Act, would mandate that pornography distributors have in place age-verification measures to ensure minors are barred from accessing sexually explicit content.

The legislative proposal is similar to laws already in place in Utah and Virginia, where the largest pornography distributor — Pornhub — is inaccessible.

Hazlewood’s legislation would require online pornography companies to match a user profile image to a verified government-issued I.D. Sites that don’t follow through with the requirement would be charged with Class C felonies, up to 15 years in prison, and $10,000 fines.

Update 11 April 2024: The Tennessee Senate has approved a measure that would require adult websites to have an age-verification process. Lawmakers say the measure aims to prevent kids from accessing sexually explicit content online. Sen. Becky Massey, R-Knoxville, is the sponsor of the bill, SB 1792, that just passed the floor. 

At least eight states have already passed age-verification laws for pornography websites. Those include Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

Georgia joins other states in requiring children younger than 16 to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts.

Lawmakers on 28th March 2024 gave final approval to Senate Bill 351, which also would ban social media use on school devices and internet services, require porn sites to verify users are 18 or over and mandate additional education by schools on social media and internet use. The House passed the measure 120-45 and the Senate approved it 48-7.

The bill, which Republican Sen. Jason Anavitarte of Dallas called “transformative,” now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto.

26 March 2024, Florida Governor Ron De Santis has signed into law, legislation that requires pornography websites and others hosting content “harmful to minors” to provide online age verification.

In January 2024, Florida’s lower chamber voted unanimously for legislation (HB 3) that pushes publishers to perform reasonable age verification. Right now, most sites simply ask users to press a button verifying they are of age.

No lawmakers argued against the bill on the floor, and the bill passed on a 119-0 vote. 

A similar bill (SB 1792) has been filed in the Senate by Sen. Erin Grall, a Fort Pierce Republican, but has yet to be heard on a Senate Judiciary Committee agenda.

Indiana state age verification legislation update

Adult websites will need stronger age verification measures under a bill headed to the Indiana House floor.

SB 17 easily cleared a House committee Wednesday. The bill would require adult sites to verify their customers’ ages with a mobile driver’s license or government ID (which Indiana doesn’t provide), or through a third-party service that verifies the customer’s age.

Nebraska stage age verification update

A Nebraska legislative committee heard testimony Wednesday 21 February 2024 over a bill that would limit young people’s access to online pornographic content by verifying a user is at least 18 years old.

The Legislative Bill 1092, introduced by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, he commented “It is to protect our most vulnerable women and children.” He said he modeled his legislation after similar efforts passed in Utah, Louisiana and Arkansas.

“We’re not trying to do something new here,” Murman told the Judiciary Committee. “We’re trying to do what’s been done in other states … and what’s been successful in other states.”

AgeGO provides a complete age verification solution for adult websites, that ensures total privacy for end users. Click here for more information.

 

Update: The Online Safety Bill has been given Royal Ascent and is now the law in the UK.

The Online Safety Bill has been signed off by the Houses of Parliament in the UK and will become law soon. The bill claims that it will make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, by placing new duties on social media companies. Through debate, the UK Government states that the bill has firmer protections for children, more control for adults and clarity for social platforms. On 19th September 2023, the Online Safety Bill passed its final Parliamentary debate and is now ready to become law.

The bill takes a zero-tolerance approach to protecting children and makes sure social media platforms are held responsible for the content they host. If they do not act rapidly to prevent and remove illegal content and stop children seeing material that is harmful to them, such as bullying, they will face significant fines that could reach billions of pounds. In some cases, their bosses may even face prison.

The bill has undergone considerable parliamentary scrutiny in both the lower and upper Houses of Parliament.

Read the full UK Government press release.

AgeGO provides a complete age verification solution for adult websites, that ensures total privacy for end users. Click here for more information.

 

Work has begun on 2024 legislation that would require a website operator to use age verification methods on websites that display material harmful to minors. It would also make it a Class A misdemeanor for website operators who knowingly or intentionally publish an adult website without reasonable age verification methods. The penalty would be increased to a Level 6 felony if the operator has a prior violation or conviction.

The legislation builds on House Enrolled Act 1447, which requires school libraries to adopt policies and procedures concerning material alleged to be obscene or harmful to minors.

This legislation is still being developed, but is anticipated to be officially filed for the 2024 legislative session this autumn.

AgeGO provides a complete age verification solution for adult websites, that ensures total privacy for end users. Click here for more information.

 

Local Spanish politicians in the southern region of Andalucia are demanding anti-porn legislation to mirror current initiatives in France, Germany, Utah and even China. The group named ‘Consejo Audiovisual de Andalucía (CAA)’ organized a conference in May 2023 to address the supposed threat to minors posed by internet pornography. Tech journalist Enrique Benítez, from the influential Prensa Ibérica media conglomerate, participated and afterward published an editorial in Prensa Ibérica’s flagship newspaper El Periodico de España, advocating for local laws to follow the lead of France and the U.K. in threatening to block adult websites unless they implement age verification.

Deeming it “unfair” to expect families to monitor minors’ access to online content, Benítez proposed shifting the responsibility to online platforms. Unlike the U.S., Europe has nothing resembling Section 230 liability protections over user-generated content.

AgeGO provides a complete age verification solution for adult websites, that ensures total privacy for end users. Click here for more information.