An Age-Verification Law is Necessary in the U.S. to Fight Porn (Despite the U.K.’s Missed Efforts)

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An Age-Verification law is necessary in the U.S. to fight the porn crisis, and protect children from exposure. (How real is the crisis?) First, did you know that distributing hardcore pornography, even on the Internet, is illegal in the U.S.? Yes, you heard me correctly. Obscenity, legally synonymous with hardcore pornography, is illegal to distribute by person, mail or Internet and is punishable up to 5 years in prison for the first offense? So why is porn so unrestrained in the U.S.? Simply, federal obscenity laws aren’t being enforced, and haven’t been since the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force was disbanded in 2011 under the Obama administration, despite the urging of 42 U.S. Senators the same year to bring justice to “all major distributors of adult obscenity.” As a result of these laws no longer being enforced, pornography is rampant on the internet and children are stumbling upon it more and more, the age of exposure for children being  about 9 to 11 years old; because of that, children are becoming addicted to porn at younger ages than ever before and the effects are detrimental.

Therefore, it is supremely crucial that these laws become priority in Washington, and with President Trump pledging to aggressively enforce federal obscenity laws during his presidency, it’s likely coming soon. However, even with enforcing these laws, there must be a solution for online pornography made available from outside the borders of the U.S., and an Age-Verification law, despite the U.K.’s failed attempt to implement their own version, seems to be the best solution to this.

Online age-verification is a widely used technology. Online alcohol and tobacco retailers are compliant to state and federal laws through age verification that takes place just before the purchase. As of 2016, regulations by the FDA have broadened to include nicotine vaping products, and they’ve been aggressively enforcing these regulations against retailers illegally selling to minors ever since. Third party online age-verification companies use multiple cross-referencing techniques, including verification through photo ID, to secure authenticity of a person without jeopardizing data security or identity. Why not take this action against pornography? Technology and the market has never been in a place like it is today to make age-verifying a real and viable solution. Even despite major media outlets attempts to poke holes in technology amid the U.K.’s implementation of such regulations, age-verification companies have showed willingness to repair and grow.

In 2017, The U.K. passed an age-verification bill against online pornography that, amid a recent delay due to statutory compliance issue with the European Union, has yet to find itself implemented. However, the U.S. doesn’t have this sort of red-tape formality. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could be given the power to create regulations, like so many other bills (more than 70, including COPPA) have required them to do, in order to set a standard of age-verification able to adapt to newer technology. This would be a much different approach than the Children’s Online Protection Act of 1998 that set out a narrow list of criteria (credit card, debit card, etc.) for verifying age to protect children from online obscenity, eventually struck down in Supreme Court case Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004). Ironically, the TN State House this year passed a unanimous resolution pointing out multiple ‘time-tested’ failings in that ruling, calling for Congress to aggressively enforce obscenity laws and readdress the crisis of children accessing pornography online.

The U.K.’s attempt also drew skepticism for “online-safety” of data information, despite the argument that nearly everything else online requires personal information; it’s as if to say that, somehow, giving personal information to access a porn site is different! This begs the question: if porn sites using proprietary methods (instead of safer and established third party methods) of age-verification can’t be trusted, then what does that say for the site itself? So then, what’s stopping Congress from creating a law that requires age-verification? As research has proven, pornography is especially dangerous to minors; therefore, the future generations and the future of our nation is at risk. We have the opportunity to confront this issue and we need to act. NDC frequents the nation’s capital on such issues, so if you choose to speak up with us, your voice will be heard.