NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Republican governor of Tennessee has signed into law a bill that requires adult-oriented businesses to post warning labels containing misrepresented or utterly unfounded claims about being exposed to pornography and adult products.
Gov. Bill Lee signed Senate Bill (SB) 2481 into law on Tuesday after the bill advanced through the Tennessee state legislature with considerable ease this past session. SB 2481 was primarily backed by Republican state Sen. Janice Bowling of Tullahoma.
As AVN previously reported, adult-oriented businesses will be required to prominently display paper warnings at entrances under this new law.
The signs can be "no smaller than 8 1/2" x 11", in 48-point type, in boldface, block letters, centered on the sign." Additionally, the letters must be black on a white background. Posting these signs at places of business is a requirement to receive licensure to operate under county-level adult-oriented business regulatory boards.
Note, not all counties in the state have these boards. Adult-oriented businesses are defined by the state as "adult bookstores, adult mini-motion and motion picture theaters, adult cabarets, escort agencies, sexual-encounter centers, massage parlors, rap parlors, saunas, and similar businesses."
The required signs must carry messages such as:
Attention: By engaging in this type of entertainment, you may be contributing to an increase in domestic assault, rape or sexual assault, and human trafficking.
Republican state Rep. Monty Fritts of Kingston carried the legislation in the House. This law makes Tennessee one of the most tumultuous regulatory environments for adult-oriented businesses and online pornography in the country.
The required labeling comes on top of the state's draconian age verification law, which carries a felony criminal offense for violators. Akin to the labeling requirements for tobacco and alcohol product sales, it is similar to digital warning labeling seen in Texas and Alabama.
