RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Senate voted unanimously Thursday to mandate age verification on adult websites, after a Republican senator snuck a copycat amendment mirroring other states’ requirements into an unrelated bill.

Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance) “added the requirement to House Bill 8, a previously unrelated measure that would add a computer science class to the state’s high school graduation requirements,” local news station WRAL reported.

Galey justified her amendment by saying the measure was needed “to protect our children,” citing the seven other states that have passed similar laws and noting with satisfaction that overall traffic to adult websites in Louisiana dropped 80% after that state’s age verification law passed.

As XBIZ has been reporting, leading conservative anti-porn crusaders have admitted that the state-by-state age verification laws are merely a stepping stone in an organized effort to ban all adult content online and revive obscenity prosecutions.

North Carolina’s HB 8 is now headed back to the state’s House of Representatives for further debate.

Main Image: North Carolina Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance)