(KAIR)--A local lawmaker is sponsoring legislation requiring pornography filters on computers and smart phones while requiring a fee to remove the filters.
According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, Republican Representative Randy Garber, of Sabetha, sponsored the two bills introduced Wednesday in the Kansas House.
They are intended to generate funding for human trafficking programs.
According to the newspaper, the legislation mandates that all new computers and internet-capable smart phones sold in Kansas be equipped with anti-pornography filters which would be removed if adult purchasers pay $20, along with other fees determined by retailers.
No one under the age of 18 would be allowed to remove the filters.
Garber told the newspaper he sees the legislation as a way to protect children, but said it wouldn’t be surprising that the bills, if adopted, generated legal challenges.
Free-speech organizations call such legislation unconstitutional.
Similar bills are being introduced in legislatures across the country.
According to a 2017 report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world, the driving force behind the legislation in at least a dozen states is a man known both as Mark Sevier and Mark Severe.
A Daily Beast report identifies him as a disbarred attorney who has sued major tech companies blaming them for his pornography addiction.
He has also, according to the report, sued states for the right to marry his laptop computer.
It’s not immediately clear what role, if any, Sevier, or Severe, played in drafting the Kansas legislation.
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