Utah starts enforcing age verification for adult websites

Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection began enforcing the state’s age verification requirement for commercial adult websites on November 2, the Department of Commerce announced on October 30. Under Senate Bill 73, sites with a substantial portion of material harmful to minors must use “reasonable age verification methods” to confirm users are at least 18. The department says it has built auditing infrastructure to document whether sites comply.

What is not being enforced is the newer clause that applies the rule to users “actually located” in Utah even when they use a VPN. On September 24, US District Judge David Barlow granted Aylo, the operator of Pornhub, a preliminary injunction against that provision, finding Aylo likely to succeed on its argument that it would effectively force age checks on users worldwide. The core age assurance duty was not challenged in that motion.

For adults, the practical question is the same as in the UK and elsewhere: whether checks stay privacy-preserving, or whether major sites again choose to block a whole state instead.