Legislation that would require porn sites to allow parents to block child access and require age verification has sailed through a state Senate committee with bipartisan support.

“This bill will give home-Internet access subscribers and cellular-data-plan subscribers the ability to block access to porn sites,” said state Sen. Jerry Alvord, R-Ardmore. “This approach basically allows parents to opt-out of allowing minors to access pornographic websites through their home network or cellular devices into opt-in to adult access through age verification.”

Senate Bill 1959, by Alvord, requires any entity that publishes or distributes pornography from a website to “provide Internet service subscribers and cellular service subscribers the opportunity, before any individual using such services may access the material, to request that access to the material by subscription service be denied.”

Any porn business that fails to do so could be sued and held liable for actual damages as well as potential punitive damages, including through class-action lawsuits. Companies that used “reasonable age verification methods” before granting access would be protected from legal liability.

Alvord noted similar technology is already used for online gambling sites, online tobacco sales, and online alcohol sales and delivery.

“Increased Internet access and other online platforms mean kids are more likely than ever to be exposed to porn,” Alvord said. “National surveys of the United States’ adolescents have found that 68.4 percent report exposure to online pornography.”

He said the bill is based on similar laws that have passed in Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

State Sen. Dusty Deevers, an Altus Republican and pastor, was the only lawmaker who opposed the bill’s passage. He said lawmakers should go further and outlaw all pornography. By inference, Deevers said SB 1959’s ban on youth access sends the message that pornography is acceptable for those over age 18 “and that it has some kind of a value.”

“We’re talking about things that are fundamentally harmful,” Deevers said.

SB 1959 passed the Senate Business and Commerce Committee on a 12-1 vote. The bill now proceeds to the floor of the Oklahoma Senate.

A similar measure has also passed out of House committee and awaits a vote from that chamber’s full membership.