TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas state Senate Judiciary Committee last week voted unanimously to endorse the state’s copycat version of the age verification legislation being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists, despite Democratic senators expressing concerns about potential implications for free speech.
SB 394 was introduced by the committee’s Republican chair, Sen. Kellie Warren, who eventually convinced her colleagues to send the measure to a full Senate vote.
Under the bill, adult websites “would be subject to the age-confirmation requirement if more than one-fourth of content viewed in any calendar month could be interpreted as harmful to minors,” the Kansas Reflector reported.
Unlike some of the recent age verification laws in other states, which only enable civil suits by non-government plaintiffs, the Kansas bill also allows for state action. This led Democratic senators to express concerns that the bill could empower Kansas’ far-right conservative attorney general, Kris Kobach, to “attack websites dedicated to literature or fine art,” the Reflector reported.
Democratic Sen. Tom Holland asked whether the bill would cover, as an example, the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, which national anti-porn lobby NCOSE has called “hardcore pornography.”
“Would that qualify as basically being harmful to minors?” Holland queried. “Could you not make the argument that that is sexually titillating?”
Warren contended that Kansas already defines content “harmful to minors” as material “containing any description, exhibition, presentation or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.”
“This bill is narrowly tailored so it doesn’t run afoul of First Amendment concerns,” she insisted.
She confirmed, however, that her bill would make the attorney general “responsible for investigating public reports of noncompliance with the law and the courts would make determinations based on that evidence,” the Reflector reported, adding that Kobach “would be allowed to seek civil penalties against websites ranging from $500 to $10,000 for each underage visit to the offending website.”
Warren’s bill also allows for civil actions by any Kansas parent or guardian of a minor “who gained access to pornography on certain websites.”
Despite his stated concerns, Holland voted in favor of the bill, as did other senators who initially expressed reservations about privacy and data security issues concerning the bill’s still-undetermined mandatory age verification system.
As XBIZ reported, last week, during a similar committee hearing in the South Dakota state House, Republican Rep. Scott Odenbach openly acknowledged that that state’s copycat bill is “part of a national movement pushing back on what he described as ‘this kind of filth,’” local station KELO reported.
His fellow Republican Rep. Rebecca Reimer expressed satisfaction that a similar measure in North Carolina had resulted in Pornhub blocking access to the site for all users regardless of age.
“It seems to be working,” Reimer stated.
Main Image Insert : Kansas Sen. Kellie Warren (R)