California Bill to Ban Minors From Viewing Pornography Unanimously Passes State Assembly

A California bill that would prevent minors from viewing pornography and obscene material online received unanimous approval to advance to the Senate for consideration May 16. The Assembly voted 65–0 to advance Assembly Bill 3080, which would require websites that contain obscene sexual content to require age verification. It would also ban such websites from retaining the personal information of users. The bill had previously passed the Assembly’s committees on privacy and consumer protection and judiciary, unanimously. It will now be heard in the Senate in the coming weeks. When presented with privacy and free speech concerns at the most recent committee hearing, Assemblymember Juan Alanis, who introduced the bill, cited a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court denying an emergency stay against a much broader and restrictive Texas age-verification law, which was recently upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals....