PHOENIX – Arizona’s version of age verification legislation, sponsored by anti-porn religious activists across the country, continues to move forward through the state Legislature despite serious bipartisan concerns and active advocacy by groups in the field of freedom of expression.
HB 2586, authored by Republican Rep. Tim Dunn, “requires websites with material deemed ‘harmful to minors’ to verify that their visitors are 18 years or older,” the Phoenix New Times reported. “Any website that does not comply may be sued for damages ‘resulting from a minor accessing the material.’”
HB 2586 is “moving toward passage,” sources familiar with the Legislature told XBIZ, “despite some of the most active opposition to all these copycat state laws.” Major issues have been raised by both parties, but these have not been addressed by the sponsors.”
Dunn’s bill has now passed both the House and Senate committees and is headed to a vote in the Senate.
FSC’s Director of Public Affairs Mike Stabile traveled to Arizona twice earlier this year to testify before both the House of Representatives and Senate committees against HB 2586 and its parallel counterpart SB 1125, sponsored by Republican Senator Wendy Rogers. The trade association also sent formal letters to committee members outlining its opposition to the measure.
“The ignorance and misinformation surrounding age verification bills like SB 1125 is astounding,” Stabile said. Posted on X.com. “If we don’t stand up for our rights – and the rights of consumers – who will? SB1125 sounds good enough: keep minors from accessing porn sites. But to do this, it also essentially blocks access to those sites for the vast majority of adults. Meanwhile, porn on pirate sites and social media sites remains untouched. It also gives the state the power to effectively censor education, art and literature – by requiring IDs, facial scans and background checks when it comes to sex or sexuality.”
Commenting on Stabile’s appearance before the Arizona Senate Committee, FSC posted SB 1125 “which passed out of committee, but with a surprisingly close vote that showed the power of actually being there.”
Reading HB 2586, veteran Arizona free speech journalist Stephen Lemons wrote in the Phoenix New Times, “it’s easy to see why even some Republican lawmakers have doubts about it.”
The bill, he added, “would apply if one-third or more of a website’s total content is ‘harmful to minors,’ a category that includes a wide range of written, spoken and visual communications. The bill defines “harmful to minors” as “descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated” displays or images of a variety of sexual acts and body parts. Sexual acts and body parts include sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, flogging, oral copulation, ‘excretory functions’, pubic hair, anuses, vulvas, genitals or a ‘female nipple’. Apparently male nipples are fine. The website also cannot describe or depict ‘exhibitions or other sexual acts’. The word ‘exhibitions’ is not defined. Also verboten is the definition of “touching, caressing or caressing nipples, breasts, buttocks or genitals.” That means there are no images or written descriptions of women breastfeeding their children.”
To advocate for the controversial age verification bills, the religiously motivated anti-porn lobby NCOSE – formerly known as Morality in Media, an organization dedicated to the eradication of all adult content – sent its Senior Policy Advisor, Peter Gentala.
Main image (inset): Arizona Rep. Tim Dunn (R)