Every day, young people, including minors, can access explicit content online with no effective age barriers. This is a significant issue as studies show, unrestrained access to explicit adult content could lead to numerous ill-effects in young people, such as distorted perception of intimacy, aggressive behavior, or unrealistic expectations. We are reaching out to our federal lawmakers to show them the urgency of this matter. We, therefore, implore you to pass legislation requiring adult websites to introduce stringent and effective age-verification systems. This would mean that anyone trying to access these sites needs to provide proof that they are 18 or older, thereby protecting our young generation from the premature exposure to explicit content. By signing this petition, you are supporting a step towards a safer digital world for our children. Please lend your voice to this crucial cause right away.

Legislative Recommendations (Partially Cited from House Bill 1181):

Definitions:

"Sexual material harmful to minors" includes any material that:

 (A)  the average person, applying contemporary

  community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and

  with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to or pander to the

  prurient interest;

 (B)  in a manner patently offensive with respect

  to minors, exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of

  descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated display or depiction

  of nudity or taken as a whole, lacks serious literary,

  artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

            

        

 Sec. 129B.002.  PUBLICATION OF MATERIAL HARMFUL TO MINORS.

  (a)  A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes

  or distributes material on an Internet website, including a social

  media platform, more than one-third of which is sexual material

  harmful to minors, shall use reasonable age verification methods as

  described by Section 129B.003 to verify that an individual

  attempting to access the material is 18 years of age or older.

         (b)  A commercial entity that performs the age verification

  required by Subsection (a) or a third party that performs the age

  verification required by Subsection (a) may not retain any

  identifying information of the individual after access has been

  granted to the material.

         (c)  A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally

  publishes or distributes material on an Internet website that is

  found to have violated this section is liable to the parent or

  guardian of the minor for damages resulting from a minor's access to

  the material, including court costs and reasonable attorney's fees

  as ordered by the court.

         (d)  A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally

  publishes or distributes material on an Internet website, or a

  third party that performs the age verification required by

  Subsection (a) that is found to have knowingly retained identifying

  information of an individual after access has been granted to the

  individual is liable to the individual for damages resulting from

  retaining the identifying information, including court costs and

  reasonable attorney's fees as ordered by the court.

      

   Sec. 129B.003.  REASONABLE AGE VERIFICATION METHODS. (a)  

  In this section, "digital identification" means information stored

  on a digital network that may be accessed by a commercial entity and

  that serves as proof of the identity of an individual.

         (b)  A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally

  publishes or distributes material on an Internet website or a third

  party that performs age verification under this chapter shall

  require an individual to:

               (1)  provide digital identification; or

               (2)  comply with a commercial age verification system

  that verifies age using:

                     (A)  government-issued identification; or

                     (B)  a commercially reasonable method that relies

  on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an

  individual.

         Sec. 129B.004.  APPLICABILITY OF CHAPTER. (a)  This chapter

  does not apply to a bona fide news or public interest broadcast,

  website video, report, or event and may not be construed to affect

  the rights of a news-gathering organization.

         (b)  An Internet service provider, or its affiliates or

  subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud service provider may not

  be held to have violated this chapter solely for providing access or

  connection to or from a website or other information or content on

  the Internet or on a facility, system, or network not under that

  provider's control, including transmission, downloading,

  intermediate storage, access software, or other services to the

  extent the provider or search engine is not responsible for the

  creation of the content that constitutes sexual material harmful to

  minors.

 

Parties as described in the above definitions would pay a fine varying between $500 and $5,000 (to be determined by a local legislative body) per unverified exposure to pornographic content. 

This would change the way that platforms and companies view their audience base, as it'd become economically irresponsible to allow underage viewers on the site.