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A new law allows websites to be held civilly liable for exposing minors to pornographic material and not verifying that consumers are adults.
SB 1515, signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May and set to go in effect July 1, requires any commercial entity to verify the age and identity of a user before they can access its content if more than a third of it constitutes “material harmful to minors.” That material is defined as “any description or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse” that is “lacking in serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.”
The Senate rejected a version of the bill by Youngkin that would have also required verifiable parental consent, largely for the stated purpose of data collection protection. “While I am disappointed my recommendations to ... provide protections for minors on social media were rejected, I’m committed to pursuing [this issue] next year,” the governor said in a statement on the bill’s signing.
Youngkin and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, did not respond to requests for comment.
A similar law in Utah spurred Pornhub in May to disable access within the state rather than implement a verification system, and a legal challenge has been filed by the Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment trade organization. In March, the group sent a letter to Youngkin, stating that the bill was unconstitutional and would ultimately be ineffective in solving the problem of safeguarding minors. “We fear that consumers will at best simply evade the measures, or at worst fall prey to criminals eager to rob and extort them,” Executive Director Alison Boden wrote.
“SB 1515 has the same privacy dangers as the Utah legislation, and the same constitutional problems,” says Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for Free Speech Coalition. “No matter what your politics, everyone should be concerned about governmental attempts to patrol our browsers or limit what legal content we consume in the privacy of our own homes.”
