The Kansas legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, has passed a bill that some people think could make it against the law for minors to see LGBTQ+ content online.
This is similar to laws that have been passed in Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Utah, and Virginia in the past few years. S.B. 394 The purpose of the law is to prevent minors from going to websites that are meant for adults. It would make websites with content that is “harmful to minors” confirm that people in Kansas are 18 or older. Visitors to those sites would have to show their government-issued IDs. This has raised worries about how people’s private information could be misused.
According to the Associated Press, State Rep. Ken Collins, one of the two Kansas Republicans who opposed the bill, said that the information used to confirm someone’s age could be used for fraudulent activities. The worries about privacy aside, LGBTQ+ supporters and some Democrats in Kansas are concerned that the state’s definition of material that is “harmful to minors” is too broad. This could mean that the new law might be understood in a way that bans young people from seeing LGBTQ+ content on the internet..
There are concerns that S.B. 394 “leaves subjectivity as to what this bill bans,” according to a representative, while a Kansas Democrat argued that under state law, “being who we are” as LGBTQ+ people is defined as harmful to minors. any A transgender activist and clinical instructor at Harvard Law’s Cyberlaw Clinic, Alejandra Caraballo, wrote in a blog post about the bill that Kansas residents might soon need their state IDs to see content featuring LGBTQ people. This proposed law in Kansas is even more strict than similar laws in other states. Other laws apply to websites that are 1/3 adult-oriented, but the Kansas law would apply to sites with 25% adult content. Sites that fail to confirm the ages of Kansas users could be fined up to $10,000. Parents of minors who see “harmful content” could sue for at least $50,000 in damages.The bill was approved by the House of Representatives in Kansas with a vote of 92–31 after being passed unanimously by the Kansas Senate. The Kansas Governor, Laura Kelly, has not said if she will sign the bill, but the huge support for S.B. 394 in the state legislature means that lawmakers might have enough votes to ignore a veto.
Collins noted Some people say that the new law might go against the First Amendment’s free speech rights. A similar law in Texas was supported by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last year, which said that Texas’s law did not break the First Amendment because the state has a good reason to stop minors from seeing pornography.
A lawmaker said that state law defines “being who we are” as harmful to minors. Threads post about the bill.
S.B. 394 is even more restrictive than many similar laws passed in other states, whose age verification requirements apply to websites whose content is 1/3 adult-oriented, as Boing Boing notes. The proposed Kansas law would apply to sites with 25% adult content and would impose fines of up to $10,000 for sites that fail to verify Kansas users’ ages. It also allows parents of minors who access “harmful content” to sue for a minimum of $50,000 in damages.
The bill passed in the state’s House of Representatives Tuesday by a vote of 92–31 after unanimously passing the Kansas Senate last month. According to the AP, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) has not indicated whether she intends to sign the bill, but given the state legislature’s overwhelming support for S.B. 394, lawmakers would almost certainly have enough votes to override a veto.
While critics say the proposed law may violate the First Amendment’s free speech protections, a similar Texas law was upheld last year by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The three-judge panel ruled that Texas’s law did not violate the First Amendment because the state has a legitimate interest in banning minors from accessing pornography.
