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New Florida bill seeks to prevent children from seeing porn online

HB 3 would require certain websites to implement age-verification methods

A parent holding a tablet with her children. (WDIV)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A new Florida bill is seeking to stop children from watching pornographic content online.

The bill — House Bill 3 — was filed earlier this month and sponsored by state Rep. Chase Tramont, a Republican lawmaker representing Port Orange.

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According to the legislation, the new rules would impact websites that have a “substantial portion” — over one-third — of its content made up of materials deemed harmful to minors, such as pornography or obscene content.

HB 3 would require such websites to implement “reasonable age verification methods” using an unaffiliated third party to ensure that users are at least 18 years old.

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When verifying a user’s age, these websites wouldn’t be allowed to collect the user’s personal information for any longer than necessary to perform the verification.

If approved, the legislation wouldn’t apply to news-gathering organizations, nor would search engines be held responsible for directing people to a website with pornographic content.

While exact methods for verification aren’t specified in the bill, they could potentially include checking credit cards or government-issued IDs.

“For far too long, this issue has gone unchecked and, frankly, we as a society owe an apology to the children and families that have been devastated by unrestricted access to materials harmful to minors,” Tramont wrote on social media. “This is a common-sense bipartisan piece of legislation designed to protect the lives and health and well-being of children.”

HB 3 is one of many pieces of legislation in Florida aimed at protecting children from obscene content. Last year, Senate Bill 1438 went into effect, which prevents children from attending “adult live performances” like sexually explicit drag shows.

Other states like Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah and Texas have drafted similar age-verification laws.

A First Amendment lawsuit ended with the Texas law being struck down last year, though the Utah law held steady after a similar lawsuit was dismissed.

Just last month, three of the world’s largest porn websites — Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat — were told to implement age-verification methods after the European Union approved new online regulations.

If approved, the law would go into effect on July 1.

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