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(LifeSiteNews) — Georgia has become the 15th state in America to enact legislation that protects children from X-rated content online.
On Tuesday, April 23, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law SB 351. The bill previously passed in the Georgia House 120-45 and the state Senate 48-7.
Among other things, the legislation requires pornography sites to verify users are over 18 before granting them access. Those that transgress the law will be hit with a $10,000 fine for each violation.
Terry Schilling of the pro-family American Principles Project called the move a “political no brainer.”
“Today, children are first exposed to online pornography on average at age 12. No sane person believes this is healthy or acceptable. Yet, for years our policymakers simply allowed the epidemic of porn use to spiral out of control, despite its numerous, destructive consequences,” he said in a press release.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, similar laws have been approved in a growing number of states, including Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas. All have had the effect of drastically reducing or eliminating altogether the reach of some pornography sites.
In recent developments, the U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it refused to block Texas’ age verification law that had been challenged by the Free Speech Coalition, a trade group for the adult film industry, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union and others. The Canadian-run PornHub website had shut down in the state as a result of it.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in his filing in defense of the law that it “simply requires the pornography industry that makes billions of dollars from peddling smut to take commercially reasonable steps to ensure that those who access the material are adults.”
A federal judge initially blocked the measure in 2023 but was overturned by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The group has other litigation in the court system that seeks to toss out all age verification restrictions.
SB 351, titled “Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024,” also requires parents to sign off on their child’s social media account if they are under 16.
“We cannot continue to sit by and do nothing as young Georgians develop addictions and disorders, and suffer at the hands of online antagonists,” Kemp said at a press conference earlier this month. SB 351 is scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2025.
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