Arizona age check law gives parents right to sue noncompliant sites $10K per day

As of this coming Friday, age assurance for access to porn sites is required by law in Arizona. The state’s new legislation, HB 2112, requires any publisher of material classified as “harmful to minors” to introduce digital age checks for users, including commercially available biometric age verification and age estimation systems.

It adheres to the 33.3 percent rule that other states have used, in that it applies to sites on which more than one third of the content is pornographic.

The law gives parents the ability to do serious financial damage, including a right of action that allows them to seek $10,000 per day from noncompliant platforms. As reported by the Daily Independent, it also gives courts the power to impose a fine of up to $250,000 “if the failure to use age verification actually results in one or more minors actually getting access to the forbidden materials.”

The law has raised the same concerns as other online safety laws targeting online pornography and social media. There is worry that it is unconstitutional, and that biometric age verification methods requiring a user to upload a selfie and a government ID opened the door to identity theft.

However, the law also aims to be tough on providers. It “prohibits those who perform the age verification from retaining any identifying information on individuals,” and has a provision that imposes $10,000 fines for passing any data on to any federal, state or local government entity.

Put age verification on devices for full protection, says Aylo

A noteworthy objector is Aylo, the subsidiary of Ethical Capital Partners, which owns the network of porn sites that includes Pornhub, the world’s most widely visited adult site. Aylo has been firm in its objections to stiff age check requirements, cutting off service to states (and nations) that adopt laws mandating them. It will do the same in Arizona, bringing the number of states with no access to Pornhub to 22.

The Independent’s report quotes Michael Stabile, a representative of the Free Speech Coalition – the main lobby group for the adult content industry – who reiterates the industry’s argument that age assurance should come further up the tech stack. Internet service providers, web browsers, search engines, cloud services: none of these, Stabile says, have to shoulder the responsibility. Why should Bang Bros., SpankBang and Naughty America? The Coalition’s answer is age verification at the device level, to be controlled by parents.

“There are far fewer issues in terms of getting consumers to upload their ID because they’re not uploading it every time they’re going to an adult site,” Stabile says – as though reverification, and not social stigma, is what makes most people wary of providing their identity data to enter porn sites.

Regardless, the Supreme Court has already dismissed the Free Speech Coalition’s position in issuing its opinion in the Texas case of Paxton v. Free Speech Coalition.

Arizona’s law won’t stop kids from accessing porn altogether; they might use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) as a workaround, or go to a friend’s house to watch porn, or hide a dirty magazine under a rock in the desert. But Rep. Nick Kupper, a Republican who supports the bill, says it’s intended as a protective layer, rather than an impenetrable barrier.

Still, civil liberties groups worry that it could be used to smother legitimate speech. For instance, a parent who doesn’t want their kids looking at LGBTQ resources might define them as “harmful to minors” and pursue legal action.

Kupper says it will ultimately be up to the courts to make the call. “We as the government are not making that call.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  Arizona  |  Aylo  |  biometric age estimation  |  biometrics  |  legislation  |  United States