Virginia lawmakers have passed a law that requires adult websites to use more stringent age verification measures to prevent access by minors.
Under the bill SB1515, adult websites must implement advanced verification methods, requiring users to provide government-issued IDs, biometric scans or submit to age verification software.
The new law applies to websites where at least 33.3% of its content can be considered “material harmful to minors.”
In the bill, “material harmful to minors” is defined as:
” … any description or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse when it (i) appeals to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest of minors, (ii) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors, and (iii) is, when taken as a whole, lacking in serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
The bill does not mention how the state would enforce the new law when most adult websites operate outside of the jurisdiction of Virginia and the United States.
Critics of the bill say the legislation raises data privacy concerns while doing little to protect minors.
A 2022 report by Common Sense Media says most children see adult material online by the age of 12, with 15% seeing it by age 10 or younger.
On Jan. 1, an near identical law went into effect in Louisiana that requires users to provide government issued ID’s when accessing pornographic websites. Similar bills have been proposed at other statehouses around the U.S.
WTOP’s Valerie Bonk and Joshua Barlow contributed to this report.
