US Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has coalesced with Senator Mike lee (R-UT) to lobby for safety measures against online minor nudity.
Representative Luna filed the House version of Senator Lee’s Preventing Rampant Online Technological Exploitation and Criminal Trafficking (PROTECT) Act.
The PROTECT Act would require pornographic websites to obtain age and identity verification of pornographic content creators.
Additionally, the act would require consent forms and age and identity verification from individuals appearing in pornographic sites.
It would also force content creators to remove non-consensual content from their platforms at the request of the victims.
Such content is usually classified as “revenge porn,” where the content uploader publishes intimate images of a third party to damage the latter.
“Predators profit from non-consensual leaked photos and videos by disseminating them to millions of viewers on pornography websites,” said Representative Luna.
According to the sponsors, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recorded more than 29,300,000 reports of suspected non-consensual pornographic minor content in 2021.
The number marks the highest annual report rate ever and a 35 percent increase from 2020.
Such content is routinely made available on pornographic websites. These sites allegedly attract more monthly visitors than Netflix, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or LinkedIn.
If Luna’s legislation is passed, pornographic websites could face fines up to $10,000 dollars for each day non-consensual minor pornographic content appears on their sites.
On top of fines, porn website officials could also face up to five years in prison for failing to comply with the Act.