The Kansas state legislature has passed a law that will require age-verification on websites that host content deemed “harmful to minors.”
Under Kansas criminal law, material “harmful to minors” includes nudity and “sexual content,” which is defined in part as “acts of masturbation, homosexuality, or sexual intercourse.”
The new age-verification bill requires users to share their government-issued identification in order to view adult content. Websites can be fined up to $10,000 for each instance a minor accesses their content, and parents are allowed to sue for damages of at least $50,000.
This means that the state can “require age verification to access LGBTQ content,” according to attorney Alejandra Caraballo, who said on Threads that “Kansas residents may soon need their state IDs” to access material that simply “depicts LGBTQ people.”
This could theoretically apply to family-friendly media with queer characters, LGBTQ+ charities and community resources, or even medical websites that include information on gender and sexuality. Such websites could soon be forced to block access to young users — cutting off their access to vital resources and information — or face hefty fines.
Democratic state Rep. Brandon Woodard, who is gay, told the Associated Press that “acts of homosexuality” being deemed as “harmful to minors” means that “being who we are” is considered as “harmful to minors.” He added that those pushing the restrictions don’t know “how technology works,” as age-verification measures are often easy to circumvent.
Like Woodard, opponents of such measures have frequently raised privacy concerns over the collection of sensitive user data. After age-verification laws for adult content passed in eight states, several popular platforms such as Pornhub opted to block access to their sites rather than put users at risk.
The Kansas bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly for signage, who has not yet said whether or not she intends to approve or veto it. Kelly often signs bills that have bipartisan support, and a veto would almost certainly be overridden, given the legislation passed with overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate.
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