"Washington state residents may soon be forced to produce IDs before getting onto websites with pornographic content. Within the state's House of Representatives, Rep. Mari Leavitt introduced House Bill 2112, which is informally known as the Keep Our Children Safe Act. Similar to the initiatives seen in other states, the bill proposes to restrict access to "online sexual material harmful" to anyone under 18."
"In practical terms, those living in Washington state could see websites asking for digital identification or demanding the user go through an age verification system that requests a government-issued ID. If a website that has more than one-third of its content being "sexual material harmful to minors" is found not following these rules, the state's attorney general can pursue steep civil penalties."
House Bill 2112, the Keep Our Children Safe Act, would require users to prove age before accessing online sexual material harmful to minors, potentially via digital ID or government-issued identification. Websites with more than one-third such content would need age verification systems or face civil penalties enforced by the state attorney general. The proposal mirrors laws in other states, including Texas' age verification law enacted in September 2023 and upheld by the US Supreme Court. Civil liberties and privacy groups warned of risks from data breaches and criticized the bill's broad, vague definition of 'sexual material harmful to minors.'
Read at Engadget
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