by Annie Chestnut Tutor
Nearly 80% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have unintentionally come across pornography, and over 50% of them actively seek it out. Even among younger children—those between 9 and 11—37% have seen porn.
Frequent exposure to pornography at a young age cultivates unhealthy views of sexuality and an inclination toward violent behavior. Children may develop a poor understanding of what constitutes a healthy relationship, what behavior is appropriate or inappropriate, how to establish and maintain boundaries, and the importance of respecting other people’s boundaries.
Blocking and filtering software has proved to be insufficient in preventing online access to pornography, and not everyone utilizes the software on every device a child may access. Furthermore, even the most well-intentioned parent is not monitoring every second of their child’s online activity. We need federal legislation requiring age verification for pornography websites.
When I turned 18, a friend gifted me a flavored cigar that I smoked partially sometime later. I also went to the adult entertainment store in town with some friends where we were asked to show our IDs to prove we were at least 18 years old. I surely did not look 18, as I was frequently mistaken for a high schooler when I was a college student and as an intern when I was a young professional.
Anyway, my friends and I were in there for maybe five minutes. We snickered and gasped at various items as we awkwardly walked around the store. None of us bought anything and left. I was naïve, and that was the most scandalous thing I had ever done. I also registered to vote when I turned 18, but there’s nothing provocative to tell about that experience.
Take a road trip, and at some point, you’ll see billboards from the interstate for adult stores and inevitably drive by one when you exit for gas or fast food. While you can’t control whether you see a billboard, you don’t exactly accidentally find yourself in one of those stores, making a purchase at the register, or later watching a video that you previously purchased. You have to physically park your car and go inside, like I did when I was 18. That’s not the case when it comes to viewing the adult content found in these stores on the internet.
Is there a rallying cry for letting children into adult-only stores? Of course not, but there is a growing consensus that we need better guardrails to prevent them from accessing this same hardcore pornographic content online.
In most states, your child can watch pornography online without anyone first checking whether he or she is 18. Louisiana was the first state to successfully implement age verification for online pornography. The state already had LA Wallet in place, the state-issued digital driver’s license that provides a seamless and secure way for websites to verify a user’s age.
The pornography website Pornhub blocked access to its site in Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah, and Virginia when those states passed laws requiring age verification but did not have a statewide verification system in place. Louisiana has shown that its model works, proving the adage that states are laboratories of democracy. It is time we pass similar legislation at the national level.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, recently introduced the SCREEN Act, which requires age verification for pornography websites nationwide. The bill establishes clear data-security requirements, parameters to ensure the websites or third-party age verifiers only collect data that is minimally necessary to verify a user’s age, and requirements for data deletion.
The bill subjects the IP addresses of all users on porn websites to the age verification measure. An IP address is the unique numerical identifier and geolocation of a device connected to the internet. Technology such as proxies and virtual private networks, or VPNs, can be used to manipulate an IP address to make a device appear as if it’s in a different location (such as a different state or country, perhaps one without age verification). The bill subjects those accessing porn websites while using such proxies and known VPNs to the age verification measure as well. This will make it harder for those who alter their real IP addresses to get around the age verification requirement—an issue some have identified as a gap in state-level legislation.
The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission to issue guidance to assist covered websites in complying with the law. It also directs the FTC to enforce the law, treating any violation as an unfair or deceptive act or practice under Section 18 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. It does not require new regulations or expand the size of government.
Importantly, the bill makes the case for why requiring online age verification on porn websites is the least restrictive means for Congress to shield children from pornographic content. Demonstrating that a bill is using the “least restrictive means” is a crucial component for passing First Amendment scrutiny in the courts. (Full disclosure, I worked for Lee and worked on this legislation.)
Returning to the subject of my childhood, I was embarrassed in front of my classmates in third grade when one girl pointed out in astonishment that my parents had sex five times since I was one of five siblings. Most other kids were only one of two or three. This was before my parents had a sex talk with me.
It’s inevitable that kids will learn some things about sex from their peers. According to a National Institutes of Health study, “61 percent of adolescents had learned some or a lot about sex in general from their parents, and 54 percent each had learned that much about sex from peers and from the media.”
But as the evidence shows, it’s unfortunately becoming more common that kids learn about sex from the internet and come across sexual content and pornography, whether it is from an innocent search query or falling down a rabbit hole of clicking videos and links that come their way.
Changing culture is a difficult task, but we can start making ours less “pornified” if we make it harder for porn companies to influence children.
Porn companies hate this legislation. They say it’s not right to make it harder for adults to lawfully consume their content. (Bear in mind, not all of their content is lawful, but that’s a topic for another day.) But for a reality check on this one, I ask anyone who looks like they are under the age of 35: How many times have you been unable to purchase alcohol or get into a bar because you forgot your ID? I guess by porn companies’ logic, that just wasn’t right either. I hope you get justice soon.
They also say that requiring age verification puts children and your privacy at risk. It’s unclear how it puts children at risk, but establishing data security and placing limits on the data that can be collected and how long it can be retained is an integral part of the legislation. These companies are not altruistic. They care about their profit margin and this bill hurts it.
Many members of Congress are focusing on establishing guardrails for social media, artificial intelligence, and Big Tech companies, which have their own problem of peddling inappropriate or otherwise harmful content, but few members are talking about pornography.
Porn is a dirty topic, an awkward topic, but I hope I have convinced you it is a necessary one to confront. It is indisputable that pornography is inappropriate for children, and we need to do more to stop their unencumbered access to it.
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Annie Chestnut Tutor is a policy analyst in the Tech Policy Center at The Heritage Foundation.
