ATLANTA — Republican Gov. Brian Kemp this week signed into law a bill that includes provisions requiring age verification for viewing adult content in Georgia, mirroring legislation being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists.
SB 351 was introduced by Republican Sen. Jason Anavitarte, a member of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, which was founded by veteran religious conservative figurehead Ralph Reed.
As XBIZ reported, the age verification requirement was originally introduced by Republican Rep. Rick Jasperse in February as a separate House Bill, HB 910, and later inserted into SB 351.
The Georgia House passed SB 351 on a 120-45 vote and the Senate approved it 48-7, in spite of warnings by First Amendment Georgia and other civil liberties advocates.
The new law requires social media companies to verify that users are at least 16 years of age or older, unless they receive approval from an individual’s parents to use the service. It also requires websites whose content is considered “harmful to minors” — including pornography — to verify that their users are age 18 or older, if such material comprises over a third of the site’s content.
Kemp’s office announced the signing through a press release highlighting SB 351 as a priority for Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who has defined himself in campaign material as “husband, father, believer.”
The media campaign promoting the age verification requirement was spearheaded by Georgia-based lobbying group Frontline Policy Action, led by religious Republican activist Cole Muzio, who launched it in 2017 in partnership with the national Family Policy Alliance. According to its literature, the group primarily “exists to glorify God and equip His people to transform the culture.”
The Catholic Vote news site heralded the signing of SB 351 with a peculiar, overtly censorship-endorsing headline underlining these bills’ real intention: “Georgia joins list of states shutting down porn sites as governor signs age verification law.”