Happy new year to people in Montana and North Carolina, who just joined a growing list of states that now require identification to view porn, or are blocked from viewing it altogether, as new age verification laws went into effect on January 1.
A year ago, Louisiana paved the way for a wave of age verification laws that target porn sites; eight states have since passed copycat age verification laws of their own. Montana’s SB 544 and North Carolina’s HB 8 are nearly identical to Louisiana’s and other states’ laws. The laws’ text make unsubstantiated claims about the addictive potential of pornography and its apparent harms to viewers’ health. North Carolina’s law was passed as part of unrelated legislation that adds a computer science course to high school graduation requirements.