One Ohio lawmaker is hoping to add The Buckeye State to a growing list of states requiring age verification to access pornography.
The proposal — Senate Bill 212 — would require visitors to pornography sites to confirm they are of legal age by mandating an identification check through an independent, third-party verification application, according to WSYX-TV.
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Ohio state Sen. Stephanie Kunze (R) said visitors’ personal identifying information would not be retained after their ages have been verified.
“Your privacy is important to us,” she said. “We’re not trying to breach your privacy but, just like if you were going in to buy something here in the physical world, you would show your ID to show that you were over a certain age.”
Ohio Lt. Gov. John Husted (R) is a supporter of the bill.
He told WSYX-TV, “If you have privacy concerns, you shouldn’t be on websites and you shouldn’t be using these platforms, because they collect all kinds of credit card information, all kinds of user data.”
Age-verification laws have been passed in eight states, including Utah, Montana, Louisiana, and Virginia. They have been introduced in another 10 states.
In response, the largest pornography website, Pornhub, has protested the laws by blocking access to the site altogether in states with such requirements, according to CBN News.
Those who visit Pornhub in states with age-verification requirements are met with the following message:
As you may know, your elected officials in your state are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk. Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in your state
All of this comes amid years of legal concerns for Pornhub, including problems with child sexual abuse material — known colloquially as “child pornography” — circulating on its platforms.
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