Lawmakers in Ohio are moving forward with a revised version of a controversial law requiring pornography websites to verify the age of users, after discovering that the existing statute may not apply to some major adult platforms.

The updated proposal is contained in House Bill 84, often referred to by supporters as the “Innocence Act.” The legislation has already been included in House Bill 96, the state’s biennial budget, and could reach the floor of the Ohio House later this month after a unanimous vote in the House Technology and Innovation Committee.

The revisions are intended to address what lawmakers describe as a loophole that allows some adult websites to avoid compliance with the state’s age verification requirements.

Ohio’s original age-verification requirement took effect last fall and required adult content sites to verify that users are at least 18 years old before granting access.

However, the measure has not affected one of the largest adult platforms, Pornhub. A spokesperson for its parent company, Aylo, said the company believes the law does not apply to its site because of protections under Section 230 of federal law, which shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content.

As a result, Pornhub has continued operating in Ohio without implementing the verification system described in the law.

Rep. Steve Demetriou, a Republican from Bainbridge Township and one of the bill’s sponsors, said the new language was drafted in collaboration with the office of Dave Yost and fellow sponsor Josh Williams.

“To kind of see, ‘Hey, what can we do to put some teeth into this, to get them to follow the law?’” Demetriou said.

The revised bill would replace criminal penalties with civil violations and allow fines of up to $ 100,000 per day for companies that fail to comply.

The legislation also expands the attorney general’s authority to investigate violations and pursue enforcement actions against companies that distribute explicit content without implementing age verification.

Supporters of the measure say it is intended to limit minors’ access to online pornography.

“This is not good stuff,” Demetriou said. “To consume at such a young age, I think it’s been a bane in our society, and I’m really excited just as a dad, obviously as a legislator, to stand with Ohio parents and make sure we rid ourselves of this scourge.”

Under the broader framework adopted last year, Ohio residents seeking to access adult websites could be required to verify their age by submitting a government-issued photo ID or personal information to a third-party verification system.

Some systems could also use facial recognition technology or cross-check data through online and government databases.

The law also includes geolocation provisions designed to block Ohio users. A location-based technology provider could monitor attempts to access a site and prevent access if the user is determined to be located within the state. Supporters say this approach could make it more difficult to bypass restrictions using virtual private networks, or VPNs.

News media organizations, cable companies, and streaming providers are exempt from the requirement. Lawmakers have also indicated that social media platforms such as X and Reddit would not be directly affected.

Critics of the policy argue that requiring users to submit identification to access adult content could create privacy and data security risks.

Cleveland resident Mallory McMaster said she worries about the potential creation of digital records of users’ viewing habits.

“Creating a log of the pornography that we watch is not a direction that we want to go in as a country,” McMaster said.

She also expressed concern that sensitive information could be exposed in data breaches, noting that cyberattacks in recent years have compromised medical, financial, and legal records of many Ohio residents.

Aylo has also criticized many state age-verification laws, arguing that they can push users toward less-regulated sites.

“People did not stop looking for porn,” the company said in a statement about similar laws. “They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that do not ask users to verify age, that do not follow the law, and that often do not even moderate content.”

Ohio is one of a growing number of states considering or implementing laws requiring age verification for adult websites. Some platforms have withdrawn services from states with similar regulations after the Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton ruling allowed Texas’s age verification requirement to remain in effect.

It is worth noting that age-verification laws may not have been necessary if parents had taken advantage of the readily available, free parental control features already built into most smart devices, including phones, laptops, and tablets. These tools allow families to directly manage and monitor their children’s online access.

This raises an important question about the balance between parental responsibility and government regulation in protecting children online.

If a parent truly cared about the well-being of their children, wouldn’t they make the slightest effort to protect them at the device level?