INDIANAPOLIS — In a few weeks, Hoosiers wanting to access adult content websites, such as PornHub, will be required to upload sensitive documents online to prove their age thanks to a new Indiana law aimed at protecting minors.
But while many argue the law has good intentions, critics point out the risk of uploading sensitive documents or information such as a driver’s license or Social Security numbers.
Backlash extends even further beyond privacy risks, however, with a group called the Free Speech Coalition joining with porn website operators in suing Indiana over the age verification law under the argument that Senate Bill 17 infringes on the First Amendment and is unconstitutional.
“We will continue to fight for the rights of adults to access the internet free of shame and surveillance,” said Alison Boden, executive director of Free Speech Coalition. “While they may sound reasonable on their face, laws like SB17 have effectively functioned as state censorship.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has defended the age-verification law by saying that porn websites make explicit material too easily accessible to children.
“We need to protect and shield them from the psychological and emotional consequences associated with viewing porn,” Rokita said in a tweet defending the law.
Critics such as the ACLU of Indiana have fired back, however, by pointing out that uploading sensitive data to the internet creates “enormous risks” for Hoosiers such as “criminal extortion, data breaches, identity theft.”
The Free Speech Coalition claims these consequences have already been seen in other states that implemented these laws leading to adults’ sensitive information being leaked or acquired by data breaches.
“These laws, while nominally about age-verification, are so dangerous to consumer privacy,” Boden said.
Hoosiers trying to log onto sites such as PornHub are currently being greeted by a warning that tells Hoosiers that they will soon lose access to the website.
“As of June 27, you’ll be required to prove you are 18 years or older such as by uploading your government ID for every adult content website you’d like to access,” the warning reads.
“We don’t want minors accessing our site and think preventing that from happening is a good thing,” PornHub said. “But putting everybody’s privacy at risk won’t achieve that.”
In addition to privacy concerns and arguments of First Amendment violations, critics of age verification laws point out how the law won’t even truly serve its intended purpose of protecting minors.
“The worst part, the law won’t even work,” said the ACLU of Indiana. “Minors will just go to sites that aren’t regulated by Indiana law or use technology to bypass the verification method. A @CommonSenseMedia report found 6 in 10 older teenagers already use VPNs to browse the internet.”
The ACLU of Indiana is also sounding the alarm on Senate Bill 17’s language, which vaguely refers to the online content under threat of being blocked as “material harmful to minors.” The ACLU says this “broadly defined phrase” could be used to censor sex education content or “age-apprioprate LGBTQ+” content.
“We’ve already witnessed a systematic effort to censor access to LGBTQ+ literature in Indiana’s schools and libraries using the phrase ‘material harmful to minors,'” the ACLU said.
Indiana isn’t the first state to put in place an age-verification law. States that have passed similar laws include Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah and Virginia.
