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SB 2082

Mississippi Bullion Depository; establish in State Treasury.

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Kathy Chism

Illinois bill requires online publishers with substantial minor-harm content to implement reasonable age verification for users 18+, enforced by the AG with penalties and a dedicat

Died In Committee
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Bill Summary · SB 2082

Note on source materials
There is a discrepancy between the initial bill header (title: “Mississippi Bullion Depository; establish in State Treasury”) and the full text supplied. The body of the document is an Illinois measure titled the “Adult Content Age Verification Act” (SB 2082, introduced by Sen. Erica Harriss). The summary below describes the adult‑content age‑verification bill as contained in the supplied text.

SB 2082 — “Adult Content Age Verification Act” (as introduced)

Status: Document shows committee activity in Feb–May 2025; bill information supplied lists status as “Died In Committee.” Companion: HB 1823. Primary sponsor: Sen. Erica Harriss; cosponsor: Sen. Li Arellano, Jr.

Purpose / intent

To require commercial entities that publish or distribute a substantial portion of material harmful to minors on the internet to use “reasonable age verification methods” to ensure users are 18 or older; to empower the Illinois Attorney General to enforce this requirement through civil actions; and to direct assessed civil penalties into a new Cyber Exploitation of Children Fund for investigating child‑exploitation cybercrimes.

Key definitions

  • “Material harmful to minors”: Miller‑type standard — (1) appeals to prurient interest by contemporary community standards re minors; (2) patently offensive sexual depictions (explicit body parts/acts listed); and (3) lacking serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.
  • “Minor”: under 18.
  • “Commercial entity”: corporation, LLC, partnership, sole proprietorship, etc.
  • “Substantial portion”: >33 1/3% of total website material.
  • “Reasonable age verification methods”: e.g., government‑issued ID or commercially reasonable methods relying on public or private transactional data to verify age.

Enforcement and remedies

  • Attorney General may investigate alleged violations, must give a commercial entity at least 30 days to comply before suing, and may seek injunctions and civil penalties.
  • Courts may assess civil penalties up to $5,000 per day of violation (text also references additional penalties up to $10,000 in some circumstances; language in the draft is partially garbled).
  • The AG may treat each day or each instance as a separate violation or combine violations at its option.
  • Courts may award costs, expenses and attorney’s fees related to enforcement.

Funds and uses

  • Creates the Cyber Exploitation of Children Fund in the State Treasury. Civil penalties collected under the Act are deposited to that fund and are to be used (subject to appropriation) for investigating cybercrimes involving exploitation of children.

Exceptions and limits

  • Explicit exemption for bona fide news or public‑interest content and protections for news‑gathering organizations.
  • Internet service providers, search engines, cloud providers, and similar intermediaries are not liable solely for providing access or transmission of content they did not create or control.

Who would be affected

  • Primary targets: commercial websites whose content is more than one‑third “harmful to minors” and that allow public access to explicit material without age verification (e.g., adult content platforms).
  • Secondary impacts: small businesses and independent publishers hosting explicit content (compliance costs), companies offering age‑verification services, and privacy advocates who may be concerned about collection/retention of IDs or transactional data.
  • Exempt: bona fide news publishers, intermediaries providing mere transmission.

Procedural / timeline notes

  • Introduced (per text): Feb 6, 2025. Committee hearings and reports are recorded in April 2025; placed on intent calendar in May 2025. The supplied bill header lists the bill as “Died In Committee.” Because some penalty language in the draft is garbled, readers should consult the official enrolled or committee‑amended text for final statutory language.

Potential impacts and considerations

  • Compliance costs and technical implementation for age verification (ID checks or transactional‑data methods).
  • Privacy concerns about submission/storage of government IDs or financial/transactional data.
  • Possible legal challenge balancing enforcement and First Amendment protections (definitions of “harmful to minors” and exceptions for news/public interest may be litigated).
  • Could shift enforcement burden to Attorney General and create a dedicated funding stream for child‑exploitation investigations.

If you want, I can (1) produce a short plain‑language summary for public distribution, (2) extract and compare this draft to the companion HB 1823, or (3) draft likely compliance scenarios and privacy mitigation options for affected websites.

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

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