Commercial entities that fail to verify a user’s age through one of these means will be liable for damages resulting from a minor accessing the material, which includes court costs and attorney fees. The law does not impose any criminal liabilities on the entity; rather, it only imposes civil liabilities. Such entities are also forbidden from retaining identifying information about the individual and can be held civilly liable if they retain such information.
However, neither internet providers nor search engines will face any liability if a minor accesses pornography.
Pornhub and other pornographic websites operated by its parent company MindGeek halted access to all Utah-based visitors by banning in-state IP addresses from entering the website. When someone from Utah tries to access the website, the person is met with a message that states the company has “made the very difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah.”
“While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution to protecting our users, and, in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk,” the message read. It further stated that “we believe the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification.”
CNA reached out to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Todd Weiler, for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Although most states do not require pornographers to verify a person’s age, a similar bill became law in Louisiana on Jan. 1 of this year. Pornhub and other major pornography websites complied with the rules in Louisiana.