HB 2689 West Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Require pornography websites to utilize age verification methods to prevent minors from accessing content

HB 2689 requires websites that primarily offer pornography to verify the age of users before allowing access, aiming to prevent minors from viewing such content. It targets commercial entities where pornography constitutes a "substantial portion" of their content, mandating "reasonable" age verification methods. The bill creates civil liability for non-compliance, allowing lawsuits against violators, while exempting internet service providers from liability for hosting content they didn’t create. It defines "minor" as under 18 and "sexual material harmful to minors" using community standards and explicit content criteria. The law provides a five-year statute of limitations for civil actions and excludes certain news organizations from coverage.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Last action Mar 11, 2025
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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
7
Key actions
0
Committee
4
Mar 11, 2025
Committee
To House Judiciary
lower
Mar 10, 2025
Committee
To House Legal Services
lower
Feb 20, 2025
Committee
To House Judiciary
lower
Feb 20, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Feb 20, 2025
Committee
To Judiciary
lower
1 primary · 8 co-sponsors

Sponsors