By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
Key Points:
- New Arizona law requires age verification for online pornography access
- Publishers must set up digital identification or commercial age-verification systems
- Lawmakers say the legislation adds one extra layer of protection for children online
Come Sept. 26, accessing pornography online is going to be the same as buying cigarettes, liquor and lottery tickets — you’re going to have to prove you’re old enough.
A new law taking effect on Friday will require any publisher of material “harmful to minors” to set up a system of digital identification or commercial age-verification before access can be granted. The measure has teeth, allowing parents to seek $10,000-a-day penalties from publishers that don’t comply.
And that’s just part of it. The new law says a court can impose a fine of up to $250,000 if the failure to use age verification actually results in one or more minors — defined in the bill as younger than 18 — gaining access to the forbidden materials.
