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Bill

HB 1839

Establishes provisions relating to civil liability for publishing or distributing material harmful to minors on the internet

2026 Regular Session Introduced by Tricia Byrnes and 7 co-sponsors

Require sites with 1/3+ sexual material to verify users are 18+, retain no verification data, and face penalties for noncompliance.

Delivered to Governor
#childrenandminors #civilprocedure #internetande-mail #liability
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · HB 1839

Summary — HB 1839

Status: Prefiled (H); Introduced January 14, 2025

Note: The provided source document contains text from several different bills and jurisdictions (including provisions about legal death declarations and autonomous vehicles). This summary isolates and explains the internet/child-protection provisions in HB 1839 — the portion that establishes age‑verification and civil‑liability rules for online material harmful to minors.

Purpose

Require commercial websites that publish or distribute a substantial share of material “harmful to minors” to verify that users are 18 or older, to limit retention of personally identifying verification data, and to create civil enforcement mechanisms (including penalties) for violations. The law is intended to reduce minor access to sexually explicit material on the internet and to create liability for commercial entities that fail to implement required safeguards.

Key definitions

  • "Sexual material harmful to minors": material that (a) appeals to prurient interest under contemporary community standards with respect to minors, or (b) is patently offensive with respect to minors by depicting sexual anatomy or acts (listed examples), and (c) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
  • "Commercial entity": corporation, LLC, partnership, sole proprietorship, or similar business.
  • "Age verification": digital identification or a commercial system using government ID or transactional data.
  • "Publish"/"Distribute": making information available on a publicly available internet website (includes social media).
  • "Transactional data": records documenting exchanges or transactions (e.g., mortgage, employment records) used for verification.

Scope and trigger

  • Applies to a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material on an internet site where more than one‑third of the content is sexual material harmful to minors.
  • Such entities must use “reasonable age‑verification methods” to confirm users are 18+ before access.

Operational and data rules

  • Any entity (or third party) performing age verification must NOT retain identifying information of the verified individual.
  • Websites covered must:
    • Display a specified warning statement about harms of pornography in 14‑point font (on the site and on all advertisements for the site).
    • Display a SAMHSA helpline notice in 14‑point font at the bottom of every page.

Exemptions and limits on secondary liability

  • Bona fide news or public‑interest reporting is exempt.
  • ISPs, search engines, and cloud providers are not liable solely for providing access or transmission services for content they do not create or control.

Enforcement and remedies

  • The state Attorney General enforces the statute and may sue in the public interest.
  • Remedies the court may grant: damages, injunctive relief, civil penalties, court costs, and attorney’s fees.
  • Civil penalties specified:
    • $10,000 per day a website operates in violation of the age‑verification requirement.
    • $10,000 per instance when a commercial entity unlawfully retains identifying information.
    • Up to an additional $250,000 if one or more minors accessed harmful sexual material in violation of the statute.

Who is affected

  • Directly: commercial web platforms, adult-content websites, social‑media sites, and third‑party age‑verification vendors that serve sites meeting the one‑third content threshold.
  • Indirectly: users (adults and minors), news organizations (exempt), ISPs and intermediaries (limited protection).

Potential impacts and implementation considerations

  • Compliance costs for covered sites: implementing or contracting for robust, privacy‑preserving age‑verification, updating site content/ads to include required notices, and establishing non‑retention practices.
  • Privacy tradeoffs: statute permits verification but forbids retaining identifying data — vendors must ensure verification proves age without storing ID.
  • Legal exposure: high per‑day penalties and per‑instance fines create strong incentives to comply or geoblock service.
  • Enforcement burden: centralized enforcement through the Attorney General; the statute authorizes broad relief.

If you want, I can:
- Extract and list exact statutory text fragments for the age‑verification provisions;
- Compare this bill’s approach with age‑verification laws in other states or EU models; or
- Draft a short compliance checklist for a website operator.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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