The age verification law passed by the Legislature only works if Arizona is providing meaningful instruction on human sexuality, which it isn’t.

• Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill requiring age verification for pornographic websites.
• Arizona public schools are not required to teach sex education, leaving pornography as a primary source of information for too many students.
• Comprehensive sex education in schools is a better solution than restricting access to pornography.

Earlier this week, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill requiring websites and social media platforms that are more than a third pornography to verify that their users are at least 18 years old.

The sponsor of House Bill 2112, Republican Rep. Nick Kupper, said, “Arizona families have had enough. Hardcore pornography has been just one click away from kids for too long, and the companies behind it have looked the other way while cashing in. This law forces them to take responsibility and keeps minors off their platforms.”

All of that is a good thing.

Lawmakers in more than 20 states have passed age verification laws like this.

There are problems with them, however, in that they may have a hard time withstanding court challenges.

Porn should not be the only sex ed available

For instance, can a viewer’s privacy actually be protected? Is language like “material harmful to minors” too vague? Are there First Amendment issues?

When this bill and others like it were working their way through the Legislature, Marilyn Rodriguez, a lobbyist who works on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “State and local government codifying what is and isn’t explicit would immediately trigger First Amendment concerns. And almost certainly would be struck down in court.”

However, there is another, even more important problem that Arizona lawmakers have yet to solve.

Opinion: GOP proves there is no transgender problem in AZ schools

For too long, online pornography has been the only sex education that many Arizona students have been able to access.

Under Arizona law, Arizona public schools are not required to teach sex education at any level, and there are no requirements to teach students about child assault awareness, sexually transmitted diseases or infections, dating abuse, abuse prevention and more.

An investigation by LOOKOUT, a nonprofit that covers Arizona’s LGBTQ+ community, found that thousands of Arizona students got no sex education at all, while others received a woefully inadequate form.

Arizona lawmakers are asking the wrong question

As it is, even in those schools with sex education classes, parents must agree to have their children participate.

In the past, a few Arizona lawmakers introduced bills that replace the state’s “opt-in” policy with an “opt-out” policy, as well as mandating that sex education to be both medically accurate and comprehensive. But those bills failed.

What that has left many students with is porn.

And while I agree with efforts to restrict access to those sites, I’d guess we all know that laws like this aren’t going to prevent our very clever young people from finding ways around firewalls.

Laws like the one the Legislature passed and Hobbs signed make grownups feel like they’re doing something.

But the real question we should be asking ourselves is: Do we want Arizona’s kids to learn about human sexuality from pornographers … or teachers?

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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PHOENIX — A massive number of Arizonans could lose their health care if the GOP’s Medicaid cuts become law, according to Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“Under the current plan, somewhere around 10 million Americans will lose health care coverage,” Hobbs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos on Wednesday.

The Democrat spoke hours after Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s massive bill full of various tax breaks.

“These Medicaid cuts will kill people, and there is not a state in the country, I don’t believe, that has the capacity to absorb these kind of cuts. Certainly, Arizona can’t,” Hobbs said. “We might be able to put some Band-aids for a little while, but we can’t absorb the impact.”

Arizona governor says GOP bill will lead to widespread Medicaid cuts

The legislation seeks to cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks by cutting spending to various federal services.

A significant portion of those cuts — $880 billion — will come from Medicaid, according to the Associated Press.

“It’s a lot of money and the state matches a much larger percent of what the federal government provides,” Hobbs said. “But it is not a hand out from the federal government. I want to remind people all of these cuts, these are Arizona tax dollars that we send to Washington, and they need to send it back to us for us to take care of our folks.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican, has said he hopes to send the bill to the U.S. Senate by Memorial Day.

“We haven’t digested the full impact of those details in Arizona, but it’s safe to say that hundreds of thousands of people stand to lose their health care,” Hobbs said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A new law signed by Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs last week authorizes the state’s four Division I universities to directly pay students for their name, image and likeness.

Senate Bill 1615, which went into effect on May 7, states that universities cannot classify athletes as employees.

The law also allows universities to engage with third-parties to “facilitate opportunities” to compensate athletes without enforcement from the NCAA or other governing bodies.

“The bill allows the university to partner with a third-party entity that is dedicated to secure deals beyond the university’s brand, creating more NIL opportunities for students,” Jason Corriher, Arizona senior associate athletic director for strategic communications, told Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services.

The timing of the legislation comes as college athletic department await a ruling in the House vs. NCAA settlement. California federal judge Claudia Wilken is expected to approve a $2.8 billion settlement that would, among other things, allow schools to directly pay athletes a portion of an athletic department’s revenues, capped at $20.5 million, beginning July 1, 2025.

If the settlement is rejected, schools could still pay athletes directly if their state governments allow.

Braly Keller, director of collegiate services and insight for NIL firm Opendorse, praised the bill, saying on X that “Arizona quickly went from one of the shortest and more dated NIL laws to a robust policy.”

Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois championed a first-of-its-kind Missouri NIL bill in 2022 during her time as Mizzou’s AD. That bill allowed high school recruits to earn NIL as long as they sign with a school in the state.

Reed-Francois told the Arizona Daily Star’s Bruce Pascoe that the Arizona legislation will keep the state competitive in the evolving NIL landscape.

“SB 1615 ensures the University of Arizona has the tools and structure to remain nationally competitive in recruiting and retaining top student-athletes,” she said. “The bill provides greater clarity around the rights and protections of student-athletes engaging in NIL activity.”

The bill, which was sponsored by Sen. TJ Shope (R-Coolidge), gives universities at least one new way to raise money that can be shared with athletes: 50/50 raffles.

Arizona previously required that half the money raised through raffles be distributed to a pre-selected entity like a charity. Under the new law, universities can disperse raffle revenues to athletes.

For example, If Arizona Stadium holds a 50/50 raffle this fall and $100,000 are put in the pot, the Arizona athletic department can hold on to $50,000 and use it to pay athletes.

The raffle funds are an avenue for Arizona athletics to raise the $20.5 million that can be paid directly to students under the pending House settlement.

Arizona will spend most of the $20.5 million on football and men’s basketball players, with the remaining money going towards athletes in other sports.