Age verification could soon be required to access websites that host sexual adult content under a new bill in the Legislature heard Friday in the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee.
House Bill 2112, sponsored by Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-University Place, with bipartisan support would place Washington among 25 states with similar laws. If passed, Washington would be an outlier as one of the few Democratic-led states to adopt such legislation.
The bill is modeled after a Texas law which has already been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s about protecting our children online where the dangers are increasingly inherent,” Leavitt told committee members, noting a study by the American College of Pediatricians that outlined impacts of pornography on children such as anxiety, depression and increased sexual promiscuity.
While the bill has bipartisan backing among lawmakers, public testimony Friday was overwhelmingly opposed, with most of the 50 people who signed in to testify raising concerns about data breaches and vague language in the legislation.
Groups such as the ACLU, Lavender Rights Project and the Northwest Progressive Institute testified against the proposal. Tee Sannon, on behalf of the ACLU, told lawmakers that while there may be a shared goal of protecting youth online, age verification is not the way to go.
Requiring individuals to provide government-issued identification to access content, Sannon said, “creates serious privacy and security risks,” and unlike showing an ID to purchase alcohol at the store, shares sensitive data online that can be misused or breached.
“These risks will deter people from accessing lawful content online, and it will also push them towards noncompliant, harmful websites like we're seeing in the U.K.,” she said.
Sannon warned that the bill's subjective definition of “sexual material harmful to minors” based on community standards, has historically treated LGBTQ+ content as inherently sexual, even when educational — limiting critical resources for LGBTQ+ youth.
“This bill is a book-burning bill dressed up as safety,” said Robert Zinchak with StopKOCSA.com, arguing it would impose on free speech and extend to adult-oriented artwork and books.
Zinchak also said data brokers, often behind age-verification tools, stand to profit “immensely” from the legislation.
“If you give data to a data broker, they are going to sell it,” Zinchak said. “They are going to breach it. It does not matter what you put in this legislation. That is what is going to happen.”
Zinchak and others noted that age verification can be bypassed by using a VPN.
Groups such as HART (Healing Addiction, Relationships, Trauma) Recovery Institute, The Age Verification Providers Association and Exodus Cry support the measure.
Iain Corby, with The Age Verification Providers Association, answered questions and concerns from lawmakers Friday, denying that data would be retained unless legally required. Corby said that data is deleted within 24 hours in case federal law enforcement attempted to access it.
“The essence of age verification is proving your age without disclosing your identity,” Corby said. “And frankly, that's not that hard to do in this world of modern technology. If American technology can put a man on the moon, then it's perfectly capable of allowing you to prove you're over 18 without risking your privacy.”
Corby told lawmakers that users would not be required to verify their age to access social media sites like Reddit or Twitter broadly, but age verification would be triggered if a user attempted to access adult content on those sites.
The legislation, which gives enforcement authority to the state attorney general's office, would establish civil penalties up to $10,000 per day for entities that operate websites in violation of the law. It also allows fines up to $10,000 per instance for websites retaining identifying information.
If passed, the law would go into effect 90 days after the legislative session ends on March 12.
© 2026 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
