Published January 29, 2025
In the era of smartphones and social media, online pornography has never been more accessible to children. Many parents are well aware of the dangers of online pornography, so they invest the time, energy, and money to set up filters on their children’s devices. Filters, however, have proven largely ineffective in the world of apps and in-app browsers. The smartphone with its hundreds of apps means there are thousands of portals to the internet for a parent to try to oversee. Apps block filters. Filters have bugs. There are countless loopholes. Parents need backup.
Age-verification laws for websites that contain sexual material harmful to minors are a critical layer of protection that states can provide to parents. This model from the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Center for Renewing America offers states strong language to use in crafting a verification law that would require pornography websites to verify that users are at least 18 years old before allowing them access to the site’s obscene and indecent content and would hold such websites accountable with presumed damages if a minor were to obtain access to their site.
A state age-verification law can help provide a crucial layer of protection for children and backup for parents by blocking access to pornographic material if a child were to intentionally or accidentally click on a link to one of these websites online. If adults want to gain access, all they have to do is verify they are over age 18. Today there exist several easy and anonymous methods that make age verification convenient and anonymous, so it does not burden adult privacy or speech. Such laws are needed and given the vast technological changes over the last 20 years they are constitutional.
Endorsements
Clare Morell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Technology and Human Flourishing Project. Prior to joining EPPC, Ms. Morell worked in both the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice, as well as in the private and non-profit sectors.
