Committee Passes Bill to Protect Children From Internet Pornography

Decency, , ,

On Tuesday the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee passed a measure that would help protect children in Arkansas from Internet pornography.

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.

The measure is similar to a law Louisiana recently passed.

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

In practice, this means pornographic websites would rely on IDs like state driver’s licenses or some sort of third-party system to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material online.

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

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

S.B. 66 helps address this problem in Arkansas.

The bill now goes to the entire Arkansas Senate for consideration.

Read S.B. 66 Here.

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Bill Filed to Address Obscenity and Material Harmful to Minors

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A proposal at the Arkansas Legislature would make it easier to prosecute a person who gives pornographic or obscene material to children.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) generally makes it a crime to give or send “material harmful to minors” to a child.

The bill defines “material harmful to minors” to include sexual material that contains nudity or sexual activity.

The bill also eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute — which would make it easier to prosecute a librarian or public school employee who distributes obscene material — and it creates a civil cause of action Arkansans can use if the state, a city, or a county distributes obscene material.

Taken together, the changes that S.B. 81 makes to Arkansas law could help address pornographic and obscene material in public libraries in Arkansas.

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 while failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

Library officials have stood by their decision to share sexual material with children. The library even posted 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.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone. 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.

Proposals like S.B. 81 could help protect children and families from patently inappropriate material in public libraries.

You Can Read S.B. 81 Here.

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

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Bill Would Require Porn Sites to Institute Age Verification

Decency, Legislation, ,

On Tuesday Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) filed S.B. 66 requiring pornographic websites to implement an age verification process to protect children from pornography.

The measure is similar to a Louisiana law that has caused major porn websites to start verifying that users are over the age of 18.

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

In practice, this means pornographic websites would rely on IDs like state driver’s licenses or some sort of third-party software to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material online.

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

We need to take steps to protect kids from pornography and other harmful material.

Read S.B. 66 Here.

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