Utah Begins Enforcing Online Age Verification for Sites Where Over a Third of Content Is Harmful to Minors
Utah on November 2 began enforcing the part of its online age verification law, SB 73, that a federal court has not blocked. The Utah Department of Commerce and Division of Consumer Protection announced the previous Friday that it would start enforcing the requirement from Monday, November 2: sites where more than one-third of the material is 'material harmful to minors,' as the law defines it, must use 'reasonable age verification methods' to make sure people under 18 cannot access the content, meaning adults must first prove their age.
The methods the law spells out include a digitized identification card, a third-party service that checks a user's details against databases regularly used by government agencies and businesses, any commercially reasonable method relying on public or private transactional data, and other methods the division sets by rule; sites and verification providers may not retain an individual's identifying information after access is granted. The division can fine sites up to $2,500 per violation. The law also levies a 2% tax on covered sites' transactions, in effect since October 1, funding the 'Minor Online Safety Restricted Account' that finances the division's enforcement; bona fide news and public-interest material, internet service providers, search engines and cloud providers are exempt. The division said established commercial age-assurance tools are available and that compliance will be checked through specialized computing and auditing infrastructure.
Another part of the law, which treated anyone actually located in Utah as in-state regardless of VPN or proxy use, was blocked by U.S. District Judge David Barlow, who ruled that geolocation perfection is not presently possible; the lawsuit is paused while the age-verification part is enforced. The bill's sponsor, Senator Calvin Musselman, said enforcing age verification is a necessary step to shield Utah's youth from explicit material.
(Source: Reclaim the Net)
Source: Reclaim the Net
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于盐湖城的犹他州议会大厦。GyozaDumpling 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. By GyozaDumpling, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
