Watching porn online in Ohio would require ID or age verification if bill becomes law

Ohio lawmakers want to require ID or other age verification to access pornography online − an effort to keep it away from kids.

State law already prevents those younger than 18 from purchasing or viewing porn, but the new proposal would require websites to check individuals' ages before adults could view porn online. Sites could use a third-party verification service or check government IDs.

Any third party could not store customers' information after access is granted or denied under Senate Bill 212, introduced Tuesday by Sens. Stephanie Kunze, R-Hilliard, and Bill DeMora, D-Columbus. Under the bill, businesses that provide porn without checking customers' ages would face penalties for violating consumer protection laws.

About 73% of teens ages 17 and younger have seen online pornography, according to a survey from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that reviews movies for how suitable they are for children. About 15% of respondents said they first saw online pornography by age 10, and the average age reported was 12 years old.

“This is not an infringement upon freedoms nor is it government overreach," Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said during a news conference about the proposed law. "It is simply applying the same rules we have for the physical world to the digital world.”

Rep. Steve Demetriou, R-Bainbridge Township, introduced similar legislation in October, but House Bill 295 would also penalize minors who access porn with a fake ID, charging them with a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

The Senate bill will not include that penalty, DeMora said. “Why would we penalize juveniles for looking at this stuff when the companies just keep pumping it out at them?”

The rules would apply to companies that at least one-third of their business is porn.

A national push to ban kids watching porn

Eight other states have passed similar laws, and Ohio's bill is modeled after those efforts.

Porn industry groups have sued with different results. Federal judges in Texas and Arkansas blocked age-verification laws from taking effect, citing concerns about free speech. But a judge in Louisiana recently tossed a challenge to its law, the Associated Press reported.

Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, said laws implemented elsewhere have been "ineffective, haphazard and dangerous." The company's traffic dropped by 80% in Louisiana after the law took effect while customers sought out unregulated websites.

A better policy would be requiring age verification on the device used to access porn rather than the site that distributes it, Aylo said in a statement.

"Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information are putting user safety in jeopardy," Aylo said.

The safety of our users is our number one concern. We will always comply with the law, but we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that actually protect the safety and security of users.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Watching porn online in Ohio may require age verification