The U.S. State Department is officially advising other nations to protect their children from the scourge of internet pornography. The Daily Wire reported that a new State Department memo is instructing diplomats to encourage the governments of foreign nations to enact policies to ensure that children do not access pornographic material on the internet and to shield them from online sexual predators.

With an eye on the increasing infringement upon political speech in Europe, the State Department memo urged that free speech be protected, but recommended age verification policies to block children from pornographic websites. “The United States seeks to engage global partners to ensure that, if they implement or consider age assurance measures, they do so in close coordination with the U.S. government, tech companies, and civil society, including parents, to inform their approach,” the memo stated. “The United States favors regulatory approaches that empower parents to prescribe access limitations for devices used by their child, rather than mandating one-size-fits-all access limitations imposed by the government,” it continued. “The United States also favors digital-literacy campaigns that educate parents about how to manage relevant device settings.”

The European Union (EU) has already implemented the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is aimed at protecting minors online, and fines large websites (including social media platforms and most popular pornography websites) for failures to adhere to the law’s regulations. While the DSA does not formally require age verification, the European Commission (the EU’s executive body) published guidelines last year recommending that member states enact age verification laws and increased parental controls.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, said, “Praise God that we have a State Department that acknowledges the evils of pornography and the damage it does to families and children. Encouraging foreign nations to protect their children from pornography is an excellent step.” She continued, “Here in America, we’ve seen pornography destroy people’s minds and their ability to love — tearing apart families and preventing marriages as it does so. I look forward to the day when this scourge no longer impacts our nation.”

“As a country, we need to hold the tech and social media industry accountable for preying upon children — age verifications where a child can simply input any birthdate are not sufficient to protect children from this evil,” Szoch insisted. “We need to do more and, of course, this begins at home where parents need to ensure their children are not using devices without supervision.”

In the U.S., 25 states have enacted age verification laws to prevent minors from accessing pornographic websites, although those laws have faced legal challenges in many cases. States with age verification laws already on the books include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming, while Iowa, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are currently working on age verification legislation.

Rather than comply with age verification laws, major pornographic websites like PornHub have opted to cease operations in 23 states. The U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld the constitutionality of age verification laws shielding children from pornographic material online.

A survey conducted by Cygnal earlier this year for the American Principles Project found that 81% of U.S. voters would support “a federal law requiring adult websites to verify all users’ ages so minors cannot access pornographic content,” including two thirds (66%) of voters who would “strongly support” such a provision. Additionally, 83% of polled voters said that they would support a policy requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and require parental consent for minors to download new apps on their devices.