House Bill 254, which adds liability for those who publish or distribute pornography, passed the Alaska House this week and is now in the Senate.
Sponsored by Rep. Sarah Vance, it is targeting a growing crisis in which minors who are consuming pornography that targets them at a rapidly accelerating rate, which is adding to the scourge of human trafficking and exploitation of minors.
Signing on as co-sponsors were Reps. Ben Carpenter, George Rauscher, and Andrew Gray.
Voting against the bill were Democrat Reps. Ashley Carrick, Sara Hannan, CJ McCormick, Donna Mears, and Genevieve Mina, and Republican Rep. David Eastman. The measure has been sent to the Alaska Senate for consideration.
Sex workers oppose the bill, which they see as cutting into their future “Only Fans” customer base.
A letter from the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project, based in San Francisco, says that while sex workers understand the importance of protecting minors from adult content, parental controls are sufficient, and the workers are fearing that they’ll be put out of business. It also warns of the risk of legal vulnerability for individuals posting adult content due to online piracy and the potential for leaks of private information. Additionally, the letter expresses worries about the intrusion on privacy and the accumulation of personal identifying information by the state government or third-party databases. Overall, the letter urged lawmakers to vote against HB 254.
The Woodall Freedom Foundation, also known as Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, also opposes the bill. The group advocates for sexual freedom as a fundamental human right: “Unfortunately, these bills are not only unconstitutional and a danger to consumer privacy, but they are also ineffective at preventing minors from accessing adult content. They are easily evaded through the use of VPNs (as more than 40% of minors already use the technology), have little impact on overseas and pirate sites, and fail to address adult content on search engines or social media where children are most likely to stumble upon it. In fact, these bills encourage the growth of explicit sexual content on non-adult sites,” the group wrote, without documentation.
Adult content creator Mattie Yukon also opposes the bill: “I am an adult content creator. I use my earnings from my adult content to support my subsistence lifestyle that was taught to me by my parents. If I lost this income I would replace it by traveling to engage in in person sex work in Fairbanks or Anchorage where serial killers like Brian Steven Smith target sex workers.”
Support for the bill, however, came from parents in side Alaska, who wrote to sponsors that Alaska’s children need legal protection from predatory porn producers.
The bill creates civil liability for any commercial entity that intentionally distributes pornography on the internet. Such a porn producer must use a commercially reasonable age-verification method to verify that a person attempting to access the pornography is 18 years of age or older. The bill can be read in its entirety at this link.
“I started with a promise to be a voice for the weak, for the voiceless, and for the vulnerable. Protecting kids from the material on the internet that can harm them for life is part of a continuing effort to keep that promise,” said House Judiciary Chair, Rep. Sarah Vance, of Homer.
With less than 18 days left in the current legislative session, it appears doubtful the Democrat-majority Senate will take meaningful action on the bill.
