Utah to start enforcing its law requiring porn sites to verify ages of users

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah plans to start enforcing its age verification laws for adult websites on Monday, seeking to crack down on companies that allow minors to view pornography online.

The state's Department of Commerce said a recent court ruling blocking part of that law still allows the state to take action against companies that don't adequately verify the ages of users, sending a warning shot to companies operating popular pornography websites.

"Porn is one of the most damaging content that we see out there in general and I think people recognize that it screws them up mentally," Margaret Busse, executive director of the commerce department, told KSL. "These are just not good sites, and frankly, the purveyors of them — I don't know how they sleep at night."

What does the law do?

State lawmakers approved SB73 earlier this year, which expanded on an earlier law requiring adult websites to verify the ages of users in order to prevent minors from accessing pornography. The new law allows the Division of Consumer Protection, part of the Department of Commerce, to actively pursue companies that violate the law.

The law includes a new tax on adult websites to help pay for enforcement as well as a new fund to promote youth mental health.

It also aims to hold companies accountable if they allow users to get around the age verification requirements by using virtual private networks or other technology.

The sponsor of the bill said it aims to help parents faced with the "nearly impossible" task of keeping their kids from encountering adult content on the internet.

"I'm a parent. I recognize the burden of parenting," Sen. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, said. "They need all the help they can get and it's not unreasonable to ask those that are providing that material to provide some level of scrutiny as to who's accessing it. They say they only want to provide access for adults. Then, fine, let's just simply age verify then."

The virtual private networks provision was temporarily put on hold last month after Aylo, the owner of Pornhub, RedTube and several other adult websites, sued the state over the law. Aylo previously made their sites inaccessible to Utahns after the state's first attempt to require age verification.

Aylo did not respond to a request for comment.

What happens now?

Utah had not been enforcing the new age verification requirements in light of the litigation, but determined they can proceed with enforcing the rest of the law even with part of it on hold, Busse said. That means the division could investigate companies' adherence to the law and seek fines for each violation.

The department said it has "implemented specialized computing and auditing infrastructure developed by enterprise technology partners," but Busse didn't elaborate about how it works.

"I don't want to comment too much on our techniques, but I can say that we are using some advanced technology to be able to assess this," she said.

The state can fine companies up to $2,500 per violation, which could add up quickly for popular sites with a large user base. Busse also said the division can take companies to court over violations of the age verification law.

"We just want them to stop doing it," she said of verifying users' ages. "We're not looking to go and make money off of this, so to speak. We're not looking to go and issue a lot of fines. We're looking to make sure they are doing it."