A new Arizona bill is designed to stop the spread of child pornography and revenge porn.
House Bill 2133 is in the state Senate, awaiting deliberation after passing the state House last month by a vote of 41 to 16. Three representatives did not vote.
HB 2133 mandates that online commercial websites that publish or distribute sexual materials verify that every person in the content is 18 or older.
These online commercial platforms would be required to take steps to prevent non-consensual uploads and use automated detection tools when possible, HB 2133 says. Detection tools could include third-party verification systems or signed affidavits.
The bill is an attempt to curb revenge pornography, which includes photos and videos that are distributed without the subject’s permission.
HB 2133 does not pertain to news organizations, search engines, cloud providers or in good-faith uses that are for “scientific, medical or educational purposes.”
Online commercial entities that don’t follow proper age-verification rules, the bill says, could be fined up to $10,000 per day per violation. If a minor is depicted in sexual material, an online commercial entity could be fined up to $250,000.
On top of all this, HB 2133 includes artificial intelligence-generated or digitally altered sexual content in the bill’s definition of sexual material. This means people could face criminal charges now for uploading AI-generated or digitally altered explicit images of someone in Arizona.
Rep. Nick Kupper, R-Yuma, HB 2133’s sponsor, told The Center Square that the bill makes Arizona law “more proactive than reactive.”
Kupper said a woman who was the victim of revenge porn brought this piece of legislation to him. He added that they worked on it to “tighten it up and fit into what Arizona needs,” calling it a “constituent bill.”
Arizona needs this law because society does not “treat internet crimes the same way as physical world crimes,” Kupper said.
He said the bill makes Arizona law “more proactive than reactive.”
The state representative gave the example of a strip club, where people are able to legally take off their clothes. However, these individuals have to have their age verified first to do this.
Whereas on the internet, revenge porn and child porn are allowed to be uploaded to the internet first before it is removed, Kupper noted.
“All I am doing is bringing a level of consistency between how we treat actions in the physical world to the digital world,” he told The Center Square.
A misconception people have about the bill, according to Kupper, is that they are “equating” it to his age verification bill from last year’s session.
Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law HB 2112, which mandated commercial pornography websites to verify users are of legal age before being able to use their platform.
Kupper said these two bills are different. He noted his age verification bill “had to do with making sure minors were not seeing adult content.”
“This bill [HB 2133] is about making sure minors are not in [adult content],” he noted.
Kupper also said another misunderstanding about his current bill is that it restricts free speech. He pointed out that “child porn and revenge porn are not protected speech.”
The state representative said his bill does not affect “protected speech.”
Kupper said he is “building off of existing federal statute” and bringing it to Arizona.
His legislation says online commercial platforms can’t share identifying information with federal, state or local government entities. Also, they can’t retain identifying information.
The bill also requires verification records to be kept for seven years and provided to the Arizona attorney general upon request.
Kupper said he worked with the Free Speech Coalition, a nonprofit trade association for the adult industry, on an amendment to his bill regarding record-keeping requirements.
Mike Stabile, director of public policy for the Free Speech Coalition, told The Center Square that the amendments the coalition worked on with Kupper were “making sure” his bill complied with “federal law and other regulations around revenge porn and child sex abuse material.”
With these new amendments, Stabile said HB 2133 will be stronger in “preventing” the distribution of revenge and child porn.
Kupper said he will introduce the amendments to the bill on the state Senate floor.
Stabile said his organization is taking a neutral stance on HB 2133. Last year, the coalition opposed Kupper’s age verification bill.
Stable added that his trade association reached out to Kupper to provide its expertise on age- and consent-verification laws.
Adult content sites use multiple verification steps to ensure people in their content are of legal age and have consented to be in the content, Stabile said.
The adult industry has been “the front line defense in a lot of cases” to prevent the distribution of revenge porn and child porn, he noted.
Stabile said he was “glad Kupper has been willing to work with [the coalition] on this bill and hopefully on future bills.”
In addition to the Free Speech Coalition, Kupper noted he also worked with Google and Meta on HB 2133. Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, and Google owns YouTube.
Kupper said he has worked with the two California companies to ensure the bill protects “children, [and] non-consenting adults” as well as speech.
Kupper told The Center Square that HB “has a good shot” of being signed into law by Hobbs, citing she signed his age verification bill last year.
He said if members of Hobbs’ office have any concerns about HB 2133, he is willing to work with them.
Be the first to comment