Alabama House bill creates registration, filtering requirements for pornography companies

[RandySF]

An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill requiring companies that distribute pornography to use filters aimed at preventing minors from viewing the material.

HB 441, sponsored by Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, mandates companies distributing material that is “harmful to minors” to have a system in place for verifying the ages and preventing people younger than 18 years old from having access.

“This bill is targeting the pornography industry,” Robbins said during the meeting. “Specifically, it is trying to prevent children from having access to pornography and across, basically, the internet.”

The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill on a voice vote.

The bill requires companies to have age verification systems using transaction data but does not outline the specifics of what companies are required to do.

“In some states they are using biometrics or facial recognition,” Robbins said. “Or it could be when you do a credit report, you have to give certain data to show that you are an adult, and you are the person you are claiming to be.”




https://alabamareflector.com/2023/05/22/alabama-house-bill-creates-registration-filtering-requirements-for-pornography-companies/

[RKP5637]

1. Kids will still get what they want like many of us did when kids.

[Sympthsical]

2. One question I have about these laws

Is whether or not they think the Supreme Court will revisit Reno v. ACLU (that's when the Court struck down the Communications Decency Act of 1996). But that was a unanimous decision at the time, and I don't see how the current configuration of the Court would make much of a difference.

O'Connor's opinion at the time noted that creating age verification systems requiring things like credit cards created impermissible barriers to speech, and the problem with the Internet was that it was far harder to create "adult zones" like the ones that were at issue in Renton that upheld zoning laws or Ginsberg v. New York.

Just an interesting question about what they think has changed that the Court will suddenly do a 180, because even conservative justices have been pretty ok with those controlling precedents.

[The Magistrate]

3. I Expect, Sir, Any Teen Can Evade Any Measure Contrived By An Alabama Legislature....

One of the best lines for a site start-up I ever saw was:


"This is the site grandma will be asking about next year."

[MineralMan]

4. A Totally Worthless Bill

The Internet is a global thing. It doesn't even recognize nations, much less states within those nations.

Unless a porn purveyor has headquarters in Alabama, that state's laws are not applicable to it.

Morons.