It’s still easier to view porn in Arizona than teach sex ed | Opinion

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.

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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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