Once again, Governor Katie Hobbs has killed a bipartisan effort to protect children from predators.
Hobbs, dubbed “The Veto Queen,” vetoed legislation that would have required commercial pornography websites to verify the age and consent of every person depicted before publishing sexual material online.
House Bill 2133, the Protect Act, sponsored by Republican State Representative Nick Kupper, was designed to stop child pornography and nonconsensual sexual material before it could be published, copied, and distributed beyond a victim’s control.
The bill required commercial websites that publish or distribute sexual material to verify that each person depicted was at least 18 years old and had explicitly consented to the material’s creation, distribution, and publication. Websites also would have been required to keep verification records and take reasonable steps to block unverified uploads.
Violators could have faced civil penalties of $10,000 per day and up to $250,000 when the material depicted a minor. Victims and the Attorney General also could have brought civil actions against violators.
Current law largely forces victims to seek removal after abusive material is already online. By then, it may have been downloaded, copied, and reposted across other websites and platforms. HB 2133 would have required commercial porn sites to verify age and consent before publication, when the harm could still be prevented.
Meta, Google, and the Free Speech Coalition did not oppose the final legislation. Hobbs nevertheless cited free-speech concerns despite language expressly protecting parody, comedy, artistic expression, political criticism, news reporting, and material used for public-interest, medical, scientific, or educational purposes.
Only two Democrats in the Legislature voted for the bill.
“Governor Hobbs and nearly every Democrat in the Legislature chose party politics over children and victims,” said Kupper. “The Protect Act required commercial porn sites to verify two basic facts before publishing sexual material: everyone shown was an adult, and everyone consented. Apparently, that was too much to ask.
“Current law responds after the damage is done. My bill would have stopped unverified material before it went online and spread beyond a victim’s control. Hobbs can hide behind a free-speech excuse, but the bill expressly protected satire, comedy, art, news, and political criticism,” continued Kupper. “Consent is not optional, and protecting children should not be partisan. I will bring the Protect Act back next year, and hopefully we will have a governor who actually cares about protecting children from exploitation.”
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