Thread by @voiceofD

A poorly written law designed to keep children from getting porn via schools and libraries (??) just led to Mississippi children losing access to e-books.

Two anti-porn laws went into effect in Mississippi on July 1. One requires age verification to access obscene content online. As such laws go, it's pretty darn specific and could survive a legal challenge. I talked about it here (start at 08:15) mississippiedition.mpbonline.org/episodes/06272…

The less-noticed 2nd law is a disaster. It forbids Mississippi schools & libraries to offer minors online resources that contain "Inappropriate materials depicting or dealing with matters of sex, cruelty and violence in a manner likely to be injurious or harmful to a child."

The new Mississippi law also bans materials that "describe OR promote [...] child sexual exploitation." That language means even content designed to educate children about the dangers of exploitation would be banned from schools and libraries. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2023…

"Obscenity" loses First Amendment protection if it fails a detailed Supreme Court-issued test. Mississippi's new laws follow that test well.

"Inappropriate" means nothing. It's hopelessly vague, and no legal basis to ban books or other content.

No library resource would be banned under the better-written age verification law: It only applies when obscene content represents 33.3% or more of a platform.

But the school/library law punishes each "occurrence" of "inappropriate" content. That effectively bans... everything.

Last week, Pornhub blocked access to Mississippi IPs rather than comply with the state's new age verification law. Iffy, but okay.

Now, e-book databases are leaving the state because they have no idea how to comply with a vague law. Absolutely not okay.

mpbonline.org/blogs/news/por…

The Vicksburg Public Library has made it more difficult for children to get library cards, even though the new Mississippi law makes no exceptions for parental consent. Libraries are flailing for solutions because the law, as written, punishes everything.
vicksburgnews.com/library-update…

Why is Mississippi's age verification law written so well & the one targeting schools & libraries so poorly? Several states passed nearly identical age verification laws. There was a script. I can't find any examples of the 2nd law. They wrote it themselves. And wrote it badly.

Mississippi teachers have achieved an incredible turnaround in children's literacy over the past decade, rising from 49th to 21st in the U.S. Now lawmakers have taken away their books to score points in a culture war straight out of the fiction section. pbs.org/newshour/educa…

Anybody interested in a piece on this? It's summer and I've got time to write or run my mouth. DMs are open.

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