West Virginia Age Verification Legislation Advances

CHARLESTON, W.Va.—The West Virginia Senate on Thursday passed House Bill (HB) 4867, which requires age verification to be adopted by all porn sites to which users log on from local IP addresses.  Now, the Senate and House are pressing for concurrence on the bill so it can be signed into law by the governor. Republican Gov. Jim Justice is expected to sign the law, in which case West Virginia will become the next state to adopt age-gating. Neighboring Virginia has an age verification law in place. Aylo, Pornhub's parent company, geo-blocked the entire state. The Canadian-based porn giant also did so in other states including Utah, Montana and Arkansas. House Bill 4867 was introduced by Del. Geno Chiarelli, a freshman Republican lawmaker with ties to hard-right Catholicism. Chiarelli said that the standard these companies will be held to for verification is whether material that is "harmful to minors" makes up a "substantial portion" of content published on a website or 33 percent of the overall content. Language in the bill also provides for "reasonable age verification methods." Virginia's porn age verification measure has been found not to be working.