Relating to pornography access for minors
West Virginia's SB 498, titled the "Protecting Kids from Porn" Act, requires websites providing adult content (where over 25% of material is explicit) to implement strict age verification before allowing access. It mandates a four-step process: facial recognition, government ID verification, credit card authentication for adults, and third-party checks, with re-verification every 24 hours. The law prohibits bypassing these measures via VPNs or proxies and imposes significant penalties, including $1 million per violation, permanent blocking of non-compliant sites, and civil liability up to $10,000 per minor exposed. It directly affects commercial adult websites operating in West Virginia and aims to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material online.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 19, 2026
Last action Jan 19, 2026
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
3
Key actions
0
Committee
1
Jan 19, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
Jan 19, 2026
Committee
To Judiciary
upper
1 primary · 7 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Ask Maddy
·
AI policy assistant
Ask Maddy about SB 498
Scope: WV
Hi! I can help you understand SB 498. What would you like to know?
Try one of these
i
Maddy answers using official bill text and legislative records. Always verify before sharing.
Sources cited inline