INDIANAPOLIS — Republican state Sen. Mike Bohacek this week filed an age verification bill with the Indiana state legislature — a copycat version of the numerous age verification bills being advanced by religious conservatives and anti-porn crusaders around the country.
Bohacek filed his bill — temporarily designated as Preliminary Draft No. 3021 — in advance of the 2024 legislative session.
“Ways to verify a person’s age include a mobile credential, an independent third-party service, and any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data,” local station WNDU reported.
Though similar to the other conservative bills on which it was modeled, Bohacek’s draft departs from their template to include the specter of felony prosecutions, if operators of “adult-oriented websites” accessible in Indiana fail to provide what the state government deems adequate age verification.
According to Bohacek’s wording, “an adult-oriented website operator who knowingly or intentionally publishes an adult-oriented website without using a reasonable age verification method commits ‘allowing a child to access Internet pornography,’ a Class A misdemeanor.”
The penalty would be increased by the new bill to a Level 6 felony, following the first conviction or violation.
The Republican lawmaker claimed, “These verification methods aren’t restricting the rights of legal adults, just tightening the law to ensure kids don’t access harmful material.”
FSC’s Director of Public Affairs Mike Stabile posted on X.com his thoughts about the dangers of what he called “Indiana’s anti-porn bill.”
“No matter your feelings about porn, the government arresting people for legal speech is an extremely dangerous precedent,” Stabile wrote. “Stoking fears of sex and terrorism are the two most common ways that governments seize rights. Neither has robust public defense, and proponents assume it won’t happen to them. Oh! But it will! Because governments hate dissent.”
The FSC is currently challenging these laws, for which religiously inspired activists have taken credit, around the country.
As XBIZ has been reporting, leading conservative anti-porn crusaders have admitted that the state-by-state age verification laws are merely a stepping stone in an organized effort to ban all adult content online and revive obscenity prosecutions.