(NewsNation) — In a rare show of ideological cooperation between left and right, the California State Assembly has passed a bill requiring adult websites to verify the ages of their visitors.
If the Senate agrees and the governor signs the bill, California would join a growing list of mostly conservative states with similar laws on the books.
Spearheading the push for the bill: Republican Juan Alanis, a former county sheriff’s sergeant, and Democrat Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a women’s rights advocate.
“This bill is simply about protecting children — and the harmful exposure to increasingly available and increasingly violent sexual material online,” Alanis told colleagues.
“It is about the safety of our children. It is about making sure that they learn healthy behaviors,” Bauer-Kahan said.
A total of 80 Assembly members voted for the bill, and none voted “no.” But 15 were listed as not voting.
The California measure would require adult sites to take “reasonable steps” to verify that a user is 18 or older. It would also mandate that data collection would ensure a user’s anonymity and not create a record of the user’s online activity.
At least eight states have enacted age-verification laws since 2022 — Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah and Virginia, and lawmakers have introduced proposals in more than 20 other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and an analysis from The Associated Press of data from the Plural bill-tracking service.
The parent company of one of the largest adult websites, Pornhub, has shut down access to its sites from those states. Pornhub called the Texas law “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous” in a statement.
Since then, online searches for “Texas VPN” have skyrocketed, according to new data by SlashGear. VPNs, or virtual private networks, allow users to disguise their locations online.
Some states’ laws are on hold pending legal appeals. Last month, the U.S Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Texas law. Also last month, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed an age verification bill.
The European Union has an age-verification law in place, along with technology to enact it.
“They have found a way to put the verification of your age on your phone,” Bauer-Kahan said. “A token is sent to the website without your personally identifiable information, and then you, if you’re an adult, can access legal pornography.”
