New York State lawmakers are looking to pass legislation requiring adult content websites to verify users’ age.
The legislation, introduced by 43rd District Senator Jacob Ashby in January, would require internet pornography websites to verify that users are 18 or older before granting access.
Ashby says the legislation is gaining momentum with 30 state legislature members cosponsoring the measure.
“I think that this bill is part of an ongoing bipartisan effort to have a better and healthier relationship online,” Ashby said.
The Republican says the bill gives operators of these websites the option to either outsource age verification or develop their own methods.
Organizations that fail to comply could face a penalty of up to $50,000 a day.
Dr. Sarah Domoff – an assistant psychology professor at the University at Albany – is an expert on problematic media use during childhood.
Domoff says recent research indicates that as many as half of teens by age 13 have viewed online pornography.
“For many youths, online pornography is where they learn about sexual behaviors and this is really concerning because the content can be extreme and violent, so whether intentional or not youth are coming into contact with this content that can have an impact on their beliefs or attitudes,” Domoff said.
The professor says parents she interviews are often concerned about the content their children are viewing online.
“What we’ve seen so far is that attitudes and beliefs about sex and relationships can be impacted. A lot of this obviously is correlational and so we can’t say anything about causality,” Domoff said.
Ashby’s proposal follows a June Supreme Court Decision in the Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton case in which the court ruled that Texas, as well as other states, has the authority to require age verification to protect minors from sexually explicit material.
Across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom began enforcing its own version of the law in July.
According to the Free Speech Coalition – a nonprofit trade association for the adult industry – 25 states, have passed age verification laws.
The coalition’s website states that the group supports the goal of protecting young people from content that is not age-appropriate or harmful but is against laws that require website users to verify their age.
The group says the laws could backfire when adults who do not want to share personal information use non-compliant websites to avoid sharing their age. They say websites that are non-compliant are more likely to have illicit content, like child pornography.
The Free Speech Coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ashby says implementation of New York’s age verification laws would be up to the adult-content platforms.
“They could utilize a different vendor to do that or they could develop their own process for verifying that, so there’s companies out there already, like ID me, that people already use to verify their identity and obviously their age along with that, that could be used here,” Ashby said.
While the senator is confident a bill with some form of the language will be passed, he doubts that his version will reach the finish line.
“Because typically the majority doesn’t allow Republican sponsored bills to go through, but what they do allow and what they do often, is that if it’s a good idea they will take it and they will pass it and that has happened with us multiple times and I am very confident that you will see that,” Ashby said.
