UPDATED: Pornography Age Verification Laws — What They Are and Which States Have Them

Arizona became the 24 state requiring pornography companies to check online consumers’ ages on May 13, joining Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, Utah, Montana, Texas, North Carolina, Indiana, Idaho, Florida, Kentucky, Nebraska, Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota and Missouri.

Twelve more states hope to pass age verification legislation before the year is up. Congress is also considering the SCREEN Act, which would institute national age verification requirements.

Described by Politico as “perhaps the most bipartisan laws in the country,” age verification laws empower parents to protect their kids by making it harder for minors to access harmful content like pornography.

Most age verification bills follow a template laid out by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in 2022:

• They require companies who publish a “substantial” amount of adult content — usually 1/3 or more of their total production — to check the age of every person accessing their website.
• They create a way for parents to sue pornography companies if their kids access content they shouldn’t.

Some states add social media age restrictions to their bills — another one of IFS and EPPC’s recommended policies. House Filing 1875 in Minnesota prevents children younger than 14 years old from creating social media accounts and requires parents to consent before 14- and 15-year-olds can sign up.

Other states, like Hawaii, separated its legislation into two bills — one establishing an age verification requirement and another creating penalties for violators. This strategy allows representatives to approve age verification laws even if they disagree with proposed penalties.

Still other states incorporate child media protections into their bills. Ohio’s House Bill 84 would crack down on AI deepfakes by forbidding the use of “another person’s likeness to create sexual images of the other person.” Maryland’s House Bill 1212 would require manufacturers to add age verification features to all smart devices activated in the state.

Wyoming’s HB 43, now law, jettisons the “33% adult content” threshold embraced by other states. The bill requires all online companies that publish or host adult content — no matter how little — to verify consumers’ ages.

While not perfect, age verification laws greatly restrict the amount of porn young people can consume. After Louisiana became the first state to pass such legislation in 2022, traffic to Pornhub.com from that state dropped by 80%, one spokesperson told IFS.

Scroll down to see the status of age verification bills in different states. To find out more about age verification and parents’ rights legislation in your state, contact your local Focus on the Family-allied Family Policy Council.