LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature has passed the state’s version of the age verification bills sponsored across the country by religious conservative anti-porn activists.
LB 1092 “must now win approval from lawmakers in the second and third rounds before heading to Governor Jim Pillen’s desk,” according to the Lincoln Journal Star reported. “The Legislature’s first round approval of the measure occurred Wednesday on Day 51 of this year’s 60-day legislative session.”
The Legislature voted 31-0 to pass the bill in the first round, with fifteen lawmakers, mostly Democrats, choosing not to cast a vote rather than oppose it.
As XBIZ reported, Secretary of State Dave Murman, the Republican lawmaker, had claimed that the bill is not only intended to protect minors from adult content, but also to “protect” women from porn.
Murman also confirmed that LB 1092 is explicitly modeled after similar legislation passed in Utah, Louisiana and Arkansas, which he called “successful.”
“We’re not trying to do anything new here,” Murman confirmed. “We are trying to do what has been done in other states.”
Murman also explicitly admitted that he would prefer to impose a total ban on adult websites, but that he could not do so “for constitutional reasons”.
LB 1092 would “require adult websites, or third-party companies they contract, to verify that users attempting to access the sites are at least 18 years of age through a ‘reasonable age verification method,’ which includes a photo ID or driver’s license or other documentation – such as a credit card statement – that could serve as ‘a reliable indication of age,’” the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
Lawmakers “also passed an amendment to the bill on Wednesday to limit the scope of the age verification requirement to apply only to websites where ‘more than one-third of the total published material’ is ‘harmful’.”
During the four-hour debate on LB 1092, Murman attempted to link adult content to violence and mental illness.
“Today you’re going to pass a bill celebrating how you made it harder for kids to reach paid porn sites while opening a giant door through which adult Nebraskans can have their data stolen,” said Democratic Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue. during the debate. “You forget that most online porn is free and even available on sites like Twitter.”
However, after repeatedly calling LB 1092 “a bad bill,” Blood did not vote against it on Wednesday.
Democratic Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha said copycat age verification laws had caused companies like Pornhub to pull out of other states, and this “sounds great.”
However, he noted, “You think, ‘Oh, well, the dirty peddlers are gone.’ But the problem with freedom of speech (and) expression is that we need to protect everyone’s right to speak and express themselves – even those we don’t like. It is therefore problematic to draw up regulations that effectively function as a ban.”
Cavanaugh also failed to vote against LB 1092 on Wednesday.
Murman echoed previous celebrations that what he called “The Pornhub” has withdrawn from several states. “So apparently it works.”
Main image: Nebraska State Senator Dave Murman (R)