Arizona lawmaker wants to keep porn away from minors

PHOENIX - A new Arizona lawmaker wants to keep pornography away from minors online.

Republican Rep. Nick Kupper of Surprise is a U.S. Air Force veteran and a former contestant on American Ninja Warrior.

He's introduced a bill that would require platforms that publish more than a third of sexually explicit material online to require users to verify their age.

"A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on an internet website, including a social media platform, of which more than one-third is sexual material that is harmful to minors shall use reasonable age verification methods to verify that an individual who attempts to access the material is eighteen years of age or older," the bill read, in part.

Under House Bill 2112, only people who are 18 and older would be able to access internet porn.

If passed, websites would need to comply with a "commercial age verification system" and also display Arizona Health and Human Services warnings on their home pages, saying that sexual materials are harmful to minors.

Violations would include hefty fines.

Similar bills recently passed in Florida and in Texas in 2023. As a result, Pornhub blocked access to users in Texas.

FOX 10 spoke to Rep. Kupper on Jan. 14 and he said, "You know, we do a lot of things as adults to protect our minors. I mean, children, they're not fully developed yet, and it's our job as adults to protect them when we do things like this for alcohol, tobacco, driving. So, it's just one more thing where I think we need to be proactive in protecting them from the dangers that pornography is. If you're an adult, and you want to view it, that's 100% your decision. But as a minor, it's something where, you know, we should be there taking care of you," he said.

The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee.

On Jan. 15, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the Texas law.