LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Proposed legislation was filed today in the Arkansas legislature requiring an ID to prove a viewer was over the age of 18 before entering a website offering pornography.

The sponsors of Senate Bill 66, Sen. Tyler Dees (R-Siloam Springs) and Sen. Jim Perry (R-Van Buren) say the bill intends to protect minors from what they call “the distribution of harmful material.”

The proposed bill requires a digitized identification card to prove that anyone from Arkansas trying to enter a pornography website is over 18.

It claims that pornography is creating a public health crisis and contributes to the hyper-sexualization of minors. The bill states that identifying information for a potential user is private once confirmed.

 The proposed legislation details what material would constitute pornography and would direct any website with over 23.33% of its material meeting the pornography description must have a digital ID requirement.

The measure has language like a law recently passed in Louisiana. That state’s Act 440 became law on Jan. 1.

WVLA-TV reported that attempting to log on to a pornography site using a Louisiana internet address required passing through a third-party identity verification site. That site, in turn, connects to a different website that confirms digital IDs for Louisiana residents.