In Ohio, there's a bipartisan "double-teaming" under way to keep kids away from online pornography. News 5 reports that a bill introduced this week in the state's Senate by Sens. Stephanie Kunze, a Republican, and Bill DeMora, a Democrat, would require identification or some other type of age verification before allowing a viewer to access porn, in the hopes of making sure those under the age of 18 don't illegally gain access. Under the new proposal, those within Ohio's borders who do try to get onto porn websites would be required to provide a photo or state ID, or enter personal details into a database managed by a third party that would then use that info to verify age.
The bill also allows Ohio's AG to sue porn sites in civil court, reports Cleveland.com. "Once it's passed and signed into law, [it] will create penalties for failure to do the age verification component ... where you're basically trying to sell porn to kids," Lt. Gov. Jon Husted says, per News 5, adding that if children were trying to purchase porn in a brick-and-mortar location, they'd have to give ID. The bill is in response to some jaw-dropping stats: Kunze mentioned polls that show most teens have already seen online porn, with more than 54% of 13-year-olds having had their first peek.
There's a similar bill working its way through the state House, though in that legislation, minors could be charged with a fourth-degree misdemeanor if they use a fake ID to access a porn site; the Senate bill won't include that penalty, per the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Why would we penalize juveniles for looking at this stuff when the companies just keep pumping it out at them?" DeMora notes. At least eight other states have passed laws like these.
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Aylo, the parent company of adult site Pornhub, calls such legislation "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous" and suggests putting age verification into place on user devices instead of on the porn sites themselves. "Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information are putting user safety in jeopardy," the company notes. Users aren't thrilled, either. "I'm not putting my ID on any of these sites! I'll just use my imagination," one critic wrote on X, per News 5. (More pornography stories.)
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