Get the news that matters to all Californians. Start every week informed.Visitors to online porn sites would have to verify their age with an ID or credit card under a bill moving through the California Legislature. Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters; iStockThe Democrat-controlled Assembly has passed a bill, similar to laws enacted in conservative states, that would require porn sites to verify visitors are adults.
Free speech advocates countered that if California enacted the bill, it would stifle the First Amendment rights of adult Californians to access online porn. Members of the porn industry also testified it would reduce traffic to their sites if the restrictions are enacted as they have been in other states.. “And if it was enacted in California, where a lot of our subscribers are based, it would hurt our business.
The laws are new, and some were immediately blocked from taking effect due to legal challenges, so there’s little public data about how effective they’ve been in preventing kids from accessing porn or the impact on web traffic to porn sites.