Pornography – Page 3 – Family Council

Updated: Arkansas House Passes Bill Protecting Children From Internet Pornography

Mar 14, 2023Jerry CoxLegislatureArkansas Legislature, Child Welfare, Obscenity, Pornography

On Tuesday the Arkansas House of Representatives passed legislation to help protect children from pornography online.

S.B. 66 by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Mindy McAlindon (R – Centerton) requires pornographic websites to implement an age verification process to protect children from pornography.

This good bill passed with nearly unanimous support in the Arkansas Senate last month, and it received unanimous approval in the House Rules Committee as well.

S.B. 66 requires pornographic websites to verify users are 18 or older using a government-issued ID or another commercially available age-verification method.

In practice, this means porn sites would rely on IDs like a driver’s license to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material online.

Websites that violate S.B. 66 could be held liable under the law.

Similar legislation has been offered in other states.

Technology has given children unprecedented access to pornography. Among other things, pornography is believed to contribute to mental health problems.

S.B. 66 would help address this problem in Arkansas.

The bill now goes to the Arkansas Senate for concurrence in amendments made to the bill, and then to Governor Sanders to be signed into law.

The Following Representatives Voted For S.B. 66

Achor
Andrews
Barker
Beaty Jr.
Beck
Bentley
M. Berry
S. Berry
Breaux
Brooks
K. Brown
M. Brown
Burkes
Joey Carr
John Carr
Cavenaugh
C. Cooper
Cozart
Crawford
Dalby
Duffield
Duke
Eaves
Eubanks
Evans
C. Fite
L. Fite
Fortner
Furman
Gazaway
Gonzales
Haak
Hawk
D. Hodges
G. Hodges
Holcomb
Hollowell
Jean
L. Johnson
Ladyman
Long
Lundstrum
Lynch
Maddox
J. Mayberry
McAlindon
McCollum
M. McElroy
McGrew
B. McKenzie
McNair
S. Meeks
Milligan
J. Moore
K. Moore
Painter
Pearce
Pilkington
Puryear
Ray
Richmond
Rose
Rye
Schulz
R. Scott Richardson
Steimel
Tosh
Underwood
Unger
Vaught
Walker
Wardlaw
Warren
Wing
Womack
Wooldridge
Wooten

The Following Representatives Voted Against S.B. 66

Ennett
Hudson
Perry
Springer

The Following Representatives Voted “Present” on S.B. 66

F. Allen
Clowney
A. Collins
D. Ferguson
V. Flowers
D. Garner
Magie
McCullough
Nicks
J. Richardson
Scott
T. Shephard
Watson
D. Whitaker

The Following Representatives Did Not Vote

K. Ferguson
Gramlich*
McClure
Miller
Speaker Matthew Shepherd

*Rep. Gramlich was absent on Tuesday, and granted leave by Speaker Shepherd.

A previous version of this article said the bill was sent to Gov. Sanders to be signed into law. The bill must first go back to the Arkansas Senate for the senators to concur in amendments made to the bill in the Arkansas House of Representatives.

House Committee Fails to Pass Bill That Would Address Obscenity at Libraries

Mar 7, 2023Jerry CoxLegislationArkansas Legislature, Decency, Library, Obscenity, Pornography

*Above: Family Council staff member Luke McCoy was among those who testified in favor of S.B. 81 at Tuesday’s committee meeting.*

On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee failed to pass a measure that would address obscene material in libraries across Arkansas.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) prohibits giving or sending harmful sexual material to a child.

The bill eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

As we have written before, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

The library in Jonesboro went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

More and more, Family Council is hearing from people who are deeply troubled by the obscene children’s books that librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

Some of the people who have testified publicly against S.B. 81 this year have signaled that they want to be free to share obscene material with children at a library.

S.B. 81 is a good bill that would help prevent that.

Unfortunately, the bill failed to pass on a voice vote at Tuesday morning’s House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it could come back up later in the session.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

House Rules Committee Unanimously Passes Bill Protecting Children From Internet Pornography

Mar 1, 2023Jerry CoxLegislationArkansas Legislature, Pornography

On Wednesday the House Rules Committee unanimously passed legislation to help protect children from pornography online.

This good bill passed with nearly unanimous support in the Arkansas Senate earlier this month. On Wednesday it passed unanimously in the House Rules Committee as well.

S.B. 66 requires pornographic websites to verify users are 18 or older using a government-issued ID or another commercially available age-verification method.

In practice, this means porn sites would rely on IDs like a driver’s license to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material online.

Websites that violate S.B. 66 would be held liable under the law.

Similar legislation has been offered in other states.

Technology has given children unprecedented access to pornography. Among other things, pornography is believed to contribute to mental health problems.

S.B. 66 would help address this problem in Arkansas.

Now that the bill has passed in the House Rules Committee, S.B. 66 goes to the entire Arkansas House of Representatives for consideration.

Below is a list of the members of the House Rules Committee: