Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would have required residents to verify their age before accessing porn sites, as previously reported 404 media. In a letter to Assembly members last week, Evers wrote that the bill “imposes an intrusive burden on adults who are trying to access constitutionally protected materials.”
The bill (AB 105) would require sites whose total content is harmful to minors to implement a “reasonable” form of age verification, such as asking users to show their government-issued ID. More than two dozen states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Texas and Virginia, have already passed similar age verification requirements for access to adult content. As a result, Pornhub has blocked its site in these locations.
Last month, the Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union testified that AB 105 “raises significant concerns about privacy, surveillance, and the First Amendment,” and it seems Evers agrees. “I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to this bill’s intrusion into the personal privacy of Wisconsin residents,” Evers writes. He further said that he is concerned about “data security and the potential for misuse of personally identifiable information” obtained as a result of the age verification process.
An early version of Wisconsin’s age verification bill also included a ban on virtual private networks (VPNs), which people are using to avoid age checks online. Lawmakers removed this provision in February, although VPNs have become targets for regulators around the world.
Despite vetoing this bill, Evers is leaving the door open for other types of age verification solutions, such as “device-based” methods that would verify users’ age on their phones or computers.
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