A new bill is being promoted in Arkansas (USA) aims to make access to porn sites more difficult.

The Protection of Minors from Distribution of Harmful Material Act would require anyone in Arkansas to provide a “digitized identification card” before viewing a site that contains more than 33.33 percent of “harmful material.” This arbitrarily determined number and the very language of the draft law is a copy of a recently-enacted law in Louisiana that prohibits people from viewing porn unless they show official identification.

SB66 was filed in the Arkansas Senate in January, and passed to the House on February 1.

In January, Louisiana (USA) passed a law requiring sites hosting adult content to verify the age of visitors. The wording of the law is vague and confusing: it refers to sites that consist of 33.33% of “materials harmful to minors”, and the draft law includes a list of various parts of the human body. The bill does not explain why more than 33.33% of the site’s pornographic content is harmful to minors.

After the bill became law, Pornhub began requiring users accessing the site from an IP address in Louisiana to verify their age. According to the data from the Free Speech Coalition, which tracks and lobbies against legislation that would harm workers in the adult industry, the Louisiana law has inspired copycat bills in seven other states, including Arkansas.

The Arkansas bill also calls porn a “public health crisis,” echoing conservative anti-porn language that was once debunked but still used by religious anti-porn groups, who seek to remove sexual content from the Internet. Researchers found that the pathologizing of porn use and masturbation actually goes against public health, and so-called “porn addiction” often occurs in cultures and communities that shame people for exploring their sexuality.