In Wyoming, it has long been a crime to promote obscenity to minors (W.S. 6-4-302). Those who knowingly do so can be fined up to $6,000 for each offense and/or imprisoned for up to a year.
The law has been on the books for decades. Old-timers might remember the days when magazine racks had blacked-out plastic sleeves to hide the covers of obscene publications from kids in the checkout aisle.
But the internet has changed the porn industry drastically. Gone are the seedy magazines of the past. They have been replaced by even seedier websites of the present. Blacked-out porn magazines are no longer seen in the checkout aisle. But that doesn’t mean that children are no longer in danger.
Today, the accessibility of porn — which is more vile and graphic than ever — is just a mouse click away. And as porn has become ever more ubiquitous, safeguards have fallen away. Even the flimsy plastic that obscured drug store smut has fallen away.
Representative Martha Lawley (R-Worland), is sponsoring HB 43 Age verification for websites with harmful material.
In her opening remarks to the House Judiciary Committee, last Wednesday, she stated: “The pornography industry uses sophisticated tactics to target children. They use pop-up ads, misleading links and enticing visuals. And it is designed to lure children into watching explicit material. Our kids are being targeted.”
And it works.
“The average age of first exposure to pornography is between seven and 13 years old,” said Lawley. “By the age of 17 about 75 percent of adolescents have been exposed to pornography. Fifty-eight percent of individuals exposed to pornography for the first time access the material unintentionally.”
Most parents are blind to these dangers. Without age verification safeguards, anyone of any age can access soul-destroying images merely by clicking on a button that says, “I’m over 18 years old.”
The long term personal and societal harms of early exposure to obscene images are well documented. That is why Wyoming law has, for decades, made the promotion of obscenity a crime.
For a deeper dive into these harms, I highly recommend the recent essay by Clare Morell and Brad Littlejohn: “Parents Can’t Fight Porn Alone” (First Things, Jan. 10, 2025).
In the face of rapid changes during the internet age, lawmakers have failed to keep pace. While ratcheting up both age restrictions and enforcement mechanisms on nicotine and tobacco products, porn has become ever easier for children to access.
In July of 2020, Wyoming enacted a rule change that requires every adult in Wyoming to scan a driver’s license in order to buy nicotine products or alcohol.
For people who value their privacy — as most Wyomingites do — it is more than a little unnerving to see your driver’s license scanned into a computer with unknown connections and questionable security. But we do it for the sake of the children.
Given the choice, I would rather risk my adult right to privacy than see kids harmed by adolescent exposure to alcohol or tobacco. This is what adults do. They make sacrifices for the safety of their children—and the children of others.
That’s why every thoughtful person in Wyoming should support HB0043 Age verification for websites with harmful material. It is a law long past due. HB 43 simply requires internet porn sites to block Wyoming minors from entry using the same age-verification means as stores selling liquor and tobacco.
Seventeen states have already enacted similar legislation. And where it has been enacted, it is highly effective. That’s why the porn cartels are desperately trying to block these laws. We should not let them.
The most stunning testimony of Wednesday’s hearing came from the Wyoming Library Association which opposes HB 43. Their spokesperson admitted that Overdrive and other databases offered to K-12 students “would need to implement age verification.” Wow.
The Wyoming Library Association apparently knows that children can access obscene material illegally at their local library. This is all the more reason to implement age verification for every content provider with access to children.
Now is the time to get on board. The law is sound, enforceable, and absolutely necessary, It passed the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. When it gets to the floor, no legislator should be afraid to rein in the porn industry by voting for HB 43.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
