With last-minute amendment, KY Senate revives age verification for porn sites

A child protection bill picked up a late-night Senate floor amendment Wednesday that would require age verification before Kentucky users can access pornography websites.

Sen. Gex Williams, R-Verona, attached a change to House Bill 278 that uses the language from two other measures — House Bill 241 from Rep. Shane Baker, R-Somerset, and Senate Bill 276 from Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield — filed earlier this session that didn’t gain traction.

Tichenor withdrew her bill in mid-March, and Baker’s never got a committee assignment.

Williams’ amendment was adopted by the Senate, and the bill passed unanimously 36-0.

Like the bills from Tichenor and Baker, Williams’ declares pornography a “corroding influence on minors” and would require users to upload proof that they are at least age 18 before viewing adult content. Websites that fail to enforce this could be sued and liable to pay damages.

When similar laws have been passed in other states, some porn websites have chosen to block access rather than comply with the law.

Before the bill heads to Gov. Andy Beshear, the House must concur with the changes — if the representatives wish to do so.

Williams told the Herald-Leader he believed the bill would fare well if challenged on freedom of speech grounds by a group representing pornographic company interests. In his opinion, it’s less likely that the state will get sued because the bill codifies a private right of legal action as opposed to banning the practice of not having age verification on such websites.

But if it is challenged in court, he said it will join several similar cases that could find their way in front of the highest court in the land.

“I think the internet, in general, is ripe for another Supreme Court review,” Williams said.

Williams also said he expects that large companies, such as Pornhub, will block all Kentucky users regardless of age from accessing their content as they have in other states considering or passing such laws.

That wouldn’t bother him.

“I think it will be a good day for Kentucky kids when Pornhub and sites like it pull out.”

The Free Speech Coalition, the trade association for the adult industry, has denounced such bills, saying they don’t oppose keeping such content from minors, but these bills will simply drive users to websites that don’t take online safety seriously.

Mike Stabile, director of public affairs for the coalition, said there are “more effective solutions that don’t require government censorship or put internet users at risk.”

“While the goal of the bill may seem noble, age-verification bills effectively remove anonymity from the internet and expose millions of everyday citizens to the threat of hacking, identity theft and government surveillance — things we’ve seen in other states that have passed this type of legislation,” Stabile said in a statement to the Herald-Leader.

“We’ve been deeply concerned about the Kentucky bill because it would possibly require identity verification of users of mainstream platforms like Twitter and Reddit.”

HB 278 unanimously passed the House on a 92-0 vote in February. It was before the Senate for passage just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the 57th day of the 60-day legislative session.