Age Verification for Pornography

Key Points

• One in 4 children are exposed to pornographic imagery by the age of 12
• Studies indicate that children as young as 7 are watching porn
• Viewing pornographic materials at any age is damaging, and in children it creates a dangerous, fake and often violent view of sex
• We must protect our children and enact common-sense verification to ensure they are protected from pornography

SUMMARY

Pornography and obscenity are a blight on our society, and children are especially vulnerable.

One in 4 children are exposed to pornographic imagery by the age of 12, and studies indicate that children as young as 7 are watching porn.

Viewing pornographic materials at any age is damaging, and in children it creates a dangerous, fake and often violent view of sex. It teaches them objectification and can harm relationships. Those exposed to sexually-explicit content at younger ages are more likely to become addicted; in fact, when researchers at Indiana University studied porn’s effect on the brain, they found that brain activity mirrored that of drug addicts.

With more and more children having smartphones, and with those comes 24/7 access to the internet, many children accidentally stumble across pornography – and from there, addiction and other negative consequences often ensue. That’s why this age-verification proposal is so vitally important.

Similar legislation has passed in 7 other states and has been incredibly successful. Revealingly, the world’s biggest pornography peddler has completely pulled out of three of the states and traffic to the site has significantly dropped in others – in Louisiana, where the first of these laws was passed, traffic to the website has decreased by 80%. This illustrates how effective this type of legislation is at protecting children.

Rep. Jill Cooper (R-Westmoreland), along with Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (D-Berks) as a fellow prime sponsor, is sponsoring an ID Verification bill that would require identification and verification of age to ensure that no one under 18 can access pornographic websites. Senator Chris Dush (R – 25) has also introduced similar legislation in the Senate, SB 603, cosponsored by Senator Wayne Fontana (D – 42), Senator Judy Ward (R – 30), and Senator Patrick Stefano (R – 32). This legislation would be revolutionary in protecting children from the harms of the porn industry.

It’s time to protect our children from this scourge.