A growing number of Mountain West states are trying to prevent minors from watching pornography.
Despite legal obstacles, Utah, Montana and Idaho have passed laws requiring sites to verify age, and Wyoming could be next.
“We would never really allow this type of negligence in physical spaces, so why should we allow it online?” asked Fremont County resident Joseph Martinez, while giving testimony at a Wyoming House Judiciary committee meeting.
He and other proponents of the bill, HB 43, say kids are being targeted with obscene material and often stumble upon this stuff by accident.
Almost 20 states require adult content sites to verify ages. This is often done by checking IDs, according to Iain Corby, who leads the Age Verification Providers Association, a U.K.-based not-for-profit trade body representing at least 30 age verification providers.
“You take a photograph of [your ID] with your phone. You take a selfie,” Corby told lawmakers. “We compare the two, and if they match, we can check your age.”
Sites can also verify ages with a credit or debit card, or through facial recognition. Corby said all personal data is deleted.
Some civil liberties advocates, however, say these laws violate privacy and free speech rights. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, they make it harder for adults to access this kind of content, while pushing children into “darker corners of the internet.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently wrestling with a similar Texas law and is expected to release a decision this summer.
“Passing HB 43 amid such legal uncertainty raises serious First Amendment concerns,” the Wyoming Library Association’s Conrrado Saldivar said at the committee meeting.
Saldivar also said that while the association supports the intent of the Wyoming bill, it’s just too broad. He worries that it could limit access to library databases that carry certain comic books or graphic novels, and result in more costs for already-struggling libraries.
A judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Utah law, after an industry group challenged its constitutionality. Montana’s age verification law is headed to court.
The Wyoming legislation has passed the state House and awaits consideration in the Senate.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
