LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ SB 66, a Republican bill that would require age verification before “entering a website offering pornography,” cleared the state House last week.
As XBIZ reported, the bill’s language had to be modified earlier this month to clarify distinctions between “corporate entities” and “third party vendors.” The amended bill passed 77-4 on Tuesday, with 14 voting “present,” and headed back to the state Senate for ratification.
SB 66 was introduced in January by state Sen. Tyler Dees (R-Siloam Springs), who later admitted that his state initiative is only a steppingstone toward the ultimate goal of a federal mandate. The bill is a copycat version of Louisiana’s Act 440, a new law enacted in January after being championed by a religious anti-porn activist Republican legislator.
Dees’ bill proposes requiring a “digitized identification card” to prove the age of anyone in Arkansas trying to enter “any website with over 23.33% of its material meeting the pornography description.”
The bill also claims that “pornography is creating a public health crisis and contributes to the hyper-sexualization of minors.”
Dees, a poultry plant executive who says he spends his free time in Bible study, told Vice magazine in February that he hoped to “protect children and their innocence in [the] state of Arkansas and then send a message across the country that we need something similar built into federal law as well.”
Some Arkansas Republicans, the Arkansas Times reported, expressed concern about the implementation of the proposed state law targeting adult content.
“The vast majority of these sites aren’t always reputable — are we setting our citizens up to give over their drivers licenses for identity theft?” Rep. Stephen Meeks (R-Greenbrier), chair of the House Advanced Communications and Information Technology Committee, noted.
The Arkansas bill, which includes Dees’ definition of what kinds of material would constitute “pornography,” is being promoted amidst what Free Speech Coalition has called a wave of “the most aggressive censorship we’ve seen in decades.” Republicans throughout the country are currently seeking to outlaw all adult content by overturning the 1973 “Miller Test” differentiating First Amendment-protected sexual material from illegal “obscene” material produced to appeal to “a prurient interest.”
Main Image: Anti-porn Arkansas State Senator Tyler Dees (R-Siloam Springs) (Photo: Arkansas Senate)