Ohio Lawmaker Introduces Harshest Age Verification Proposal Yet

COLUMBUS—A conservative Republican state lawmaker representing a legislative district just on the outskirts of the Cleveland, Ohio, metropolitan area has proposed an age verification bill for accessing adult websites in the state. Rep. Steve Demetriou of Bainbridge Township announced that he had filed House Bill 295 in a press statement on October 11. Demetriou’s bill, if passed and signed into law by the Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, would “require a more rigorous age verification process to prevent minors from viewing sexually explicit material on the internet in Ohio.” “Online pornography is a threat to Ohio children,” he said in the statement, relying on claims that “pornography is a pathway to mental health issues for children and can be a precursor to sexual aggression.” He also adds a set of remarks about how “it is no secret that the porn industry and human trafficking often overlap.” “The Innocence Act simply creates a common sense, age-appropriate barrier to ensure that Ohio children cannot access this harmful content with the tap of app on a smartphone,” he said. After a review of the initial language in the bill, adult platforms that fail to comply could face both civil and criminal liability for failing to follow the law. The parent companies of adult platforms that fail to meet age verification requirements in the law could be fined and charged with a felony. The proposal prohibits the sale of deep fake porn, artificial intelligence-generated alterations, and animated or other types of AI-generated sexual content. The penalty for violators is also a felony. Language in the bill also calls for minors who circumvent age verification blocks—by way of a virtual private network or proxy, for example—to be charged with a misdemeanor. Compared to other copycat age verification proposals, the so-called Innocence Act is the most aggressive to date. Criminal charges, including provisions for asset forfeiture, added to the state code could result in broad civil liberties issues and federal lawsuits brought by dozens of civil society organizations, like the Ohio affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  In a thread on X (formerly Twitter), Free Speech Coalition director of public affairs Mike Stabile told his followers that the bill’s “definitions are vague and confusing.” As AVN has reported for the past several months, the Free Speech Coalition is mired in litigations at different federal judicial jurisdictions. Noteworthy among the cases is the coalition’s challenge to an age verification law in Texas that requires pseudoscientific compelled speech in the guise of public health warnings dealing with the harms of pornography consumption. This case is on appeal at the Fifth Circuit.