This is not merely a moral concern. It is a public health crisis.
One month ago, on August 11, Governor Sherrill signed three bills into law that are intended to protect kids online. Among them is a new coding requirement that forces social‑media platforms to default all minor accounts to private settings, making them less accessible to strangers. Another bill invests in a new research center to study the harms of social media, even though these harms are already well documented by parents, educators, and mental‑health professionals across the country. These are positive steps, and we applaud aspects of this effort. I even testified before the Assembly Technology Committee on February 19, 2026, urging lawmakers to adopt stronger protections for minors.
But the reality is that these measures represent only a campaign promise half fulfilled. They are not nearly enough to address the scale of the crisis facing young people online.
Despite recent legislative activity, New Jersey continues to fall behind other states in protecting children from the dangers of the digital world. Across the country, 27 states have enacted laws requiring age verification to access online pornography, ensuring that minors cannot simply click through a warning screen to reach explicit content.
On June 11, 2026, I testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a discussion‑only hearing on Senate Bill 1826, sponsored by Senator Troy Singleton (D). The bill would require age verification for online pornography. In the Assembly, Assemblyman Jay Webber (R) has introduced a stronger version, Assembly Bill A3228, modeled closely on laws already passed in other states and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Webber’s bill gives parents a civil cause of action against pornography companies that violate state law and lowers the threshold for what qualifies as harmful content to minors, moving beyond the narrow and difficult‑to‑prosecute obscenity standard.
Unfortunately, Senator Singleton has refused to amend his bill to match the proven language used in the 27 states that have already enacted age‑verification laws—language that simply prohibits access to “material harmful to minors.” He believes that adopting this standard would not pass the legislative majority held by his Democratic colleagues.
And frankly, we don’t have to look any farther than the books and materials currently available in many public schools to understand why such language might be considered “problematic” for our state!
This refusal to incorporate effective, court‑tested language is one of the key reasons meaningful reform continues to stall in Trenton, and why children remain at risk in our state.
The Assembly will reconvene their summer recess today, and the Senate will return on September 28. They will decide whether New Jersey continues to lag behind or finally joins the growing national movement to protect children from online pornography. New Jersey’s children deserve better than half measures. It is time for the Legislature to finish the job.
