Another State Lawmaker Wants To Criminalize Porn Through Age Verification
Here we go again, everyone. Another far-right state lawmaker has introduced a bill requiring age verification in order to access porn sites from within state limits. This time it is Tennessee state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood who introduced yet another extreme age verification proposal that essentially makes it a crime to own a legally operating porn website protected by the First Amendment - regardless of whether the material protects certain regional regulations.
Referred to as the Protect Tennessee Minors Act, her bill takes a few notes from other far-right lawmakers in Ohio and Indiana. Both state legislatures have bills that levy misdemeanors and felonies on companies that own adult entertainment websites that fail or choose not to follow age verification requirements. The proposal in Ohio makes it a crime for users to circumvent an age gate through legally available means, like a VPN. The act, or House Bill 1614, is a pre-filing for 2024's legislative session, and it adopts a new Class C felony for failure to comply with the law.
While the official bill language has yet to be published, House Bill 1614 is what we in the adult entertainment industry press call a copycat" of mandatory age verification first adopted in the state of Louisiana. Throughout this year, proposals targeting adult entertainment websites with age-gating rules have grown exponentially extreme. Rep. Hazlewood's bill fits this clear mold.
In a statement to a local news station, Rep. Hazlewood said, I think we all have a responsibility as a society to protect our children." A grandparent herself, Hazlewood told the news station that she's received input from parents in her legislative district that inspired her to propose this bill - nowhere else. It is hard to believe when every conservative lawmaker with a savior complex is buying into fascistic lawmaking trends set forth by select groups, such as Project 2025, Heritage Foundation, National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and the even crazier American Principles Project, among others. Minors shouldn't view porn by any means. But we have to be realistic.
Rep. Hazlewood's bill - and virtually every age verification proposal in state legislatures and Congress - certainly lack input from adult entertainment industry members, consumers, law enforcement, and actual anti-trafficking groups. Why are the Patsy Hazlewoods of the world so focused on digital content that is already heavily age-restricted? I'm well aware of the lawsuits against Meta Platforms and their social networks, Facebook and Instagram. I am also aware of the anti-LGBTQ+ Kids Online Safety Act and parents begging the government to do their jobs.
However, a significant volume of sexual abuse imagery isn't tied to the online adult industry, and mandatory age verification for end users isn't the answer to fighting against these heinous acts.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez argued in a new lawsuit that platforms like Pornhub and OnlyFans do more to counter CSAM and non-consensual intimate imagery (revenge porn) than platforms like Facebook and Instagram. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's (NCMEC) CyberTipline data overwhelmingly confirms this fact. Age gates on porn sites - or even social media networks - will not curtail CSAM online. Admittedly, the parent companies that own the mentioned platforms are involved in programs that locate, remove, and report cases of CSAM and non-consensual intimate imagery (e.g., NCMEC's TakeItDown program). The age verification hypothesis certainly doesn't solve this problem, and it shouldn't come at the expense of the First Amendment rights of adults who are not breaking laws or imposing harm on others.
Michael McGrady covers the legal and tech side of the online porn business, among other topics. He is the politics and legal contributing editor for AVN.com.