Governor Tony Evers and Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez vetoed a bill on April 7 that would have required pornographic websites to verify the ages of users to prevent minors from accessing explicit material. In his veto message, Evers said he believed the bill would infringe on viewers’ privacy rights, calling mandatory ID checks an “intrusive burden.”
The legislation was introduced by a group of state representatives and senators from both parties and referred to the Committee on State Affairs. The bill aimed to prohibit business entities from knowingly distributing or publishing material harmful to minors online unless they performed reasonable age verification methods.
Congressman Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor, criticized the decision in a statement: “Another Good Friday veto from @GovEvers: He rejected AB 105, a bipartisan bill requiring age verification for porn sites. He called ID checks an ‘intrusive burden.’ Apparently for Democrats, we can’t require ID to protect children or ID to protect our elections nationwide.”
Daniel Degner, president of Wisconsin Family Action, also commented on the veto: “It is shameful that the Governor of Wisconsin is choosing to parrot talking points from porn companies rather than acting to protect our kids. Gov. Evers hides behind a tired and disproven narrative to avoid the reality that he alone has put thousands of children at risk.”
According to analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau included in legislative documents, the proposed law defined “material harmful to minors” as content designed primarily for prurient interests and lacking serious value for minors. The bill also outlined what constitutes reasonable age verification methods and stipulated that businesses could not retain identifying information after access decisions were made.
The legislation further sought civil penalties against violators and clarified that sovereign immunity could not be used as a defense in related civil actions.
