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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawmakers on Capitol Hill took another step Thursday toward creating a nationwide rulebook for how adult websites verify the ages of their users.
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce approved the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, a broad online safety package that includes provisions requiring age verification by adult websites at the federal level.
The KIDS Act is an omnibus measure combining several online safety proposals into a single bill. Much of the public discussion around it has centered on the Kids Online Safety Act portion of the legislation, particularly revisions to language that previously would have imposed a “duty of care” standard on social media platforms. But the package also includes an updated version of the Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act, which would establish nationwide age-verification requirements for adult websites.
Title I of the legislation, titled “Shielding Minors From Obscenity,” requires adult platforms to implement what the bill calls a “technology verification measure.” The bill defines that as technology that “(A) employs a system or process to determine whether it is more likely than not that a user of a covered platform is a minor; and (B) prevents access by minors to any sexual material harmful to minors on a covered platform.”
To comply with the proposal, platforms — or third-party age-verification providers working on their behalf — would need to use such verification technology to assess a user’s age and also take “reasonable measures” to address attempts to bypass those systems. That provision appears aimed at methods commonly used to avoid verification requirements, including virtual private networks, or VPNs.
Failure to comply would be treated as a violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act’s prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices. Under the proposal, civil penalties could reach up to $10,000 for each violation.
Industry Legal Perspectives
About half of U.S. states have already enacted their own age-verification laws. If the KIDS Act ultimately becomes law, its age-verification provisions would override those state-level requirements.
Industry attorney Corey Silverstein said that while he views any form of mandatory age verification as a violation of the First Amendment and a prior restraint on free speech, he believes a single federal standard would be preferable to a patchwork of state laws.
“The various state-level AV laws have created absolute havoc throughout the industry, containing small differences that make compliance a nightmare for service providers,” he said.
Silverstein noted, however, that the bill’s language leaves certain areas of state authority intact. While the KIDS Act would generally preempt state age-verification laws, it specifies that it would not preempt laws related to trespass, contract, tort, product liability, consumer protection, or laws carrying criminal penalties.
“This would still leave the door open to individual states to pursue criminal charges and the filing of private lawsuits,” Silverstein cautioned. “Additionally, an overly aggressive attorney general could still attempt to pursue an adult platform under the guise of ‘general consumer protection,’ although I believe that such an attempt would have considerable obstacles to overcome.”
Industry attorney Lawrence Walters said the age-verification requirement in the KIDS Act appears “more forgiving” than many existing state laws.
“The state laws typically require that the platform verify the user is not a minor,” Walters said. “The KIDS Act requires that the covered platform determine whether it is ‘more likely than not’ that the user is a minor.”
Walters added that the specific verification methods that would qualify under the legislation would likely be clarified later through guidance or rulemaking from the Federal Trade Commission.
He also pointed to a potential timing issue if the bill becomes law.
“These obligations would kick in one year after passage of the KIDS Act,” he said. “Given federal preemption, this could create an environment where the state AV laws are unenforceable for a year until the federal standard becomes effective.”
The legislation will next move to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. If approved by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the KIDS Act would take effect one year after enactment.
