Two state senators introduced a bill Tuesday that would require online websites that feature adult content, including pornography, to verify Ohio users’ ages and identities before letting them on.
Introduced by Sens. Stephanie Kunze (R-Dublin) and Bill DeMora (D-Columbus), Senate Bill 212 would only affect sites with one-third or more total material that is “harmful to juveniles” under the Ohio Revised Code—leaving popular social media sites that also platform adult content, like X and Reddit, alone.
Users' ages could be verified through a third-party site, according to the legislation, although it prohibits those third-parties from holding onto personal data once a site has allowed or denied a user access.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said the intention is to protect children by extending already-existing offline provisions online.
“After a decade of failure, failing our kids in the digital world, it's time that we start making a better effort to protect them,” Husted said at the press conference introducing the proposal.
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More than half of Ohio teens, in a poll Kunze cited, said they'd seen porn online by the time they turned 13. Phil Callaghan, an Olentangy Local Schools teacher, said he’s seen firsthand the harm unfiltered access to the internet can have on children.
“In my 40 years, never have I seen our youth in such trouble,” Callaghan said.
At least seven other states—including Louisiana, Texas and Virginia—have a law like this on the books, all of which are recent. Some faced legal challenges.
In those states, opponents like adult entertainment site PornHub have argued it’s overreach to ask for this sort of data collection.
PornHub went so far as to block all users in some states—but Husted said he isn't worried if if the site were to eventually go dark in Ohio. “We will be just fine with that,” Husted said.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for PornHub parent Aylo wrote that Aylo would prefer states require age verification on devices rather than websites.
“Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy,” the spokesperson wrote.
The bill's introduction comes on the heels of a law requiring social media and gaming sites to get parental permission before letting any Ohioan younger than 16 onto their platforms. It was set to take effect Jan. 15, but that’s now on hold because of a lawsuit.
SB 212 has yet to be assigned to a committee. A similar bill, House Bill 295, goes further by criminalizing minors who lie about their age to gain access to adult content online.
