Governor Tate Reeves has signed two bills aimed at protecting children from accessing “sexually oriented” content online and in public schools.
Reeves gave his approval to Senate Bill 2346 and House Bill 1315 on Tuesday afternoon, stating he believes the bills will make it more difficult for children to access pornographic media online.
“With the rise of technology and social media, it has never been easier for children to access pornographic materials,” Reeves said. “That can have really disastrous effects on children’s long-term mental health and development.”
SB 2346 will regulate exposure to pornographic online by requiring commercial entities that provide such content to have age verification systems in place. The first part of the bill’s wording requires websites that have at least one-third of their content containing pornography to use an age-verification system.
The bill also states that commercial entities that violate the bill “shall be liable to an individual for damages resulting from a minor’s accessing the material, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees as ordered by the court.”
Pornographic media will also be filtered in K-12 schools with the passing of HB 1315, which includes digital and online resources provided by vendors to children as young as kindergartners.
“I can only imagine how tough it is to be a child in today’s society. It seems like everywhere you turn, social media and the entertainment industry are pushing hypersexualized content on the youngest members of our society,” Reeves added. “We’re going to push back on that in Mississippi. That’s why I signed this legislation that will make our kids safer.”
