Rep. Lawley’s age verification bill signed by Gov. Gordon

A fourth bill sponsored by Rep. Martha Lawley (R) Worland, and the one that is most personal for her, was signed by Governor Mark Gordon on March 13.

Lawley said she received a call from the governor’s office Monday that he would sign the bill. The governor’s communication director Michael Pearlman said, “There are still a number of outstanding bills (more than 40) that the Governor is reviewing carefully, including HB 43. I can’t give you a precise timeline on action on that bill, but I know he will be acting on some enrolled acts this week. The Governor has until midnight on March 21 to take action on any bills that were on his desk when the Legislature adjourned.”

House Bill 43, regarding age verification for websites with harmful material, passed with relative ease in the House with only one amendment on Committee of the Whole. The bill passed 59-1 in the House, and after a delay in getting to the Committee of the Whole in the Senate, eventually passed the Senate 28-3.

The bill prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from accessing harmful sites, including pornographic sites. Per the bill, “‘Material harmful to minors’ means any picture, image, graphic image file, film, videotape or other visual depiction that is obscene or is child pornography.”

Lawley said she had a conversation with Senate Majority Leader Tara Nethercott to ensure the bill would come to the Committee of the Whole for a vote.

“This one was for me as a grandmother, who still has relatively young grandchildren, and just the dynamic that kids, young kids have and hold in their hand a device that can lead them anywhere. And the internet is full of these dark places, and the world of pornography has changed greatly in the last 10, five to 10 years. It has become more

violent, more graphic,” Lawley said.

She said pornography can affect the brain of a developing child and impact their understanding of a healthy relationship. Lawley added that parent filters do not work and pornographic sites are only a few clicks away on certain apps.

She said technology available today, which has been in use in Europe for about two years, is available, accurate and “not that expensive. And it keeps kids from getting to those harmful sites.”

Lawley said one study showed that 58% of children who get on a pornographic site due so unintentionally.

She said she drafted the bill based on what was learned from bills in Texas and Louisiana, which have had First Amendment suits filed.

“And what I concluded is we have room here for a straightforward approach, which is this. We describe who these content providers are. And it’s basically this, that if the normal course of your business is to create this kind of content, we define it. We define it using Wyoming statutes of what is obscene…if that is your business, then you are required for anyone in Wyoming…to provide age verification,” Lawley said.

She added, “Age verification is different than identity verification. That is one of the things a lot of people don’t understand. We have technology now that can verify age without verifying identity.

“But even so, the bill has strong protections in it to protect people’s right to privacy, and so if these content providers or anyone they contract with in any way tries to capture any data and hold on to it, they’re liable and there’s strong private causes of action against them. There are also strong private causes of action for parents or guardians to use if they don’t do the verification and those children are exposed to pornography.

“I’m very proud of the bill,” she continued. “Eventually I think we will have a national solution. I think the federal government nationwide needs to do required age verification, but it’s not happening, and so until then, we are going to protect children in Wyoming.”