Fri Mar 24, 2023 – 6:01 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — Lawmakers in Arkansas and Virginia recently advanced bills to protect children from accessing online pornography.
Both pieces of legislation require commercial entities to enact age verification policies to protect minors from exposure to sexually explicit content that is “harmful to minors.”
READ: Mississippi passes bill to protect children from digital pornography
“Pornography is creating a public health crisis and is a corroding influence on minors,” Arkansas’ SB 66 states. “Pornography contributes to the hyper-sexualization of minors and may lead to: low self-esteem; body image disorders; an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages; [and] increased desire among minors to engage in risky sexual behavior.”
The legislation further states that viewing pornography at a young age can result in “difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships; impact brain development and function; contribute to emotional and medical illnesses; shape deviant sexual arousal; and promote problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”
The bill “provide[s] a civil remedy for damages against commercial entities that distribute material harmful to minors” and requires “reasonable age verification methods” for websites where more than one-third of content is harmful to minors.
“Reasonable
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