Arkansas Proposes Requiring ID to Watch Porn Online 

A new bill advancing through the Arkansas legislature aims to make it harder for people to access porn sites.

Senate Bill 66, the Protection of Minors from Distribution of Harmful Material Act, would require anyone in Arkansas to provide a "digitized identification card" before viewing a site that contains more than 33.33 percent of “harmful material.” That arbitrarily-defined number, and the language of the bill itself, is a copycat of a recently-enacted law in Louisiana that blocks people from seeing porn if they don’t hand over official identification.

SB66 was filed in the Arkansas Senate in January, and passed to the House on February 1. 

In January, Louisiana passed a bill into law that makes sites that host adult content liable for requiring age verification. The language of the law is vague and confusing; it demands that sites where a “substantial portion” of content is 33.33 percent or more material that’s “harmful to minors,” and defines harm to minors as a litany of body parts and acts, including “pubic hair, anus, vulva, genitals, or nipple of the female breast; Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses, or genitals; Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation; flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act,” and lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” for someone under 18 years of age. 

After that bill became law, Pornhub started requiring users who log in from a Louisiana-based IP address to verify their age. According to the Free Speech Coalition, which tracks and lobbies against legislation that would harm workers in the adult industry, the Louisiana law has inspired copycat bills in seven other states, including Arkansas.  

Like the Louisiana law, the authors of the Arkansas bill wrote that “harmful” content includes “nipple of the female breast, pubic hair, anus, vulva, or genitals; touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, the anus, or genitals; or sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions of sexual acts, or any other sexual act; or the material taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” 

Republican Senator Tyler Dees, the lead sponsor of the bill, told Motherboard that it was “inspired by many constituents in my district who are concerned about the growing problems related to pornography and the advancement of technology and devices around our children,” and that an “explosion” of children’s ability to access to the internet prompted the bill.

“My hope is that we protect children and their innocence in state of Arkansas and then send a message across the country that we need something similar built into federal law as well,” Dees said.

The Arkansas bill also calls porn a “public health crisis,” mirroring conservative anti-porn language that’s since been debunked, but is still used by religious anti-porn groups that seek to wipe sexual content from the internet. Researchers have found that pathologizing porn use and masturbation is actually antithetical to public health, and so-called “porn addiction” often stems from cultures and communities that shame people for exploring their sexuality. 

This article was updated with comment from Sen. Tyler Dees.