Two bills in
Texas
take the commonsense and reasonable approach to limiting access to pornography by requiring age verification of users to make it harder for minors to view obscene content.
Senate Bill 2021
requires websites that publish a substantial amount of sexual material to “use reasonable age verification methods … to verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older.”
Another bill
in the Texas House would require the same.
INDIANA GOVERNOR BANS GENDER TRANSITION SURGERY ON TRANSGENDER YOUTH
Pornography should be restricted as much as legally possible, given how it can
destroy families
, can cause
long-term
mental health
problems, and relies on the
exploitation
of men and women. Age verification is a good, commonsense step toward limiting access to pornography.
People must verify their age to buy alcohol, rent a car, or buy a firearm. Registering to vote or sign up for Little League baseball can require age verification by using someone’s birth certificate, for example. It seems reasonable to make it hard for children to access pornography and to put the onus onto websites that host sexually explicit material to take appropriate steps.
After all, bars must check identification to ensure minors are not drinking alcohol; pornographic websites should have the same responsibility to ensure children are not being exposed to the dangers of pornography.
This proposal garnered interest elsewhere after Louisiana passed a
similar law
in 2022. The United Kingdom has a
similar law
in place.
There are also “similar efforts underway to enforce age limits on porn and social media use in Arkansas, Montana, Utah, Mississippi, and Virginia,” according to Catholic Vote’s
interview
with Jon Schweppe with the American Principles Project. “Copycat bills have been introduced (though not yet voted on) in Florida, Kansas, South Dakota, West Virginia, California, Iowa, and Kentucky.” Groups such as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are in support of the legislation.
The law may also have the unintended positive effect of deterring adults from using pornography. While the law requires safeguards to protect people’s private data, just the thought of having to register in some way as a user of pornography might be enough to dissuade adults from logging onto those websites. There is something about having to declare an interest in watching obscene content that could dissuade people from watching it.
Some
might argue
that requiring identification makes it harder for adults who don’t have any to access pornography — good! Instead of watching smut, try going for a walk, reading a book, or establishing actual healthy relationships with real individuals, not naked women on your computer or phone.
Pornography clearly harms people and families. “Some of the common damaging effects of pornography for users can include addiction, isolation, increased aggression, distorted beliefs and perceptions about relationships and sexuality, negative feelings about themselves, and neglecting other areas of their lives,” a Utah State University report
stated
, citing research into the topic.
Marital problems include “difficulty becoming sexually aroused without pornography” and “a decrease in relationship sexual satisfaction and emotional closeness,” as well as trust problems “due to dishonesty and deception about pornography use.”
Therefore, any steps society can reasonably take to stop people from getting hooked on pornography in the first place are worth considering. Texas is off to a good start by protecting minors from pornography and helping them avoid the addictive and destructive substance.
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Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.
