Adult content/age minimum

AN ACT Relating to establishing an age minimum to access certain 1
adult content online; adding a new chapter to Title 19 RCW; and 2
prescribing penalties. 3
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:4
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The definitions in this section apply 5
throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires 6
otherwise.7
(1) "Commercial entity" includes a corporation, limited liability 8
company, partnership, limited partnership, sole proprietorship, or 9
other legally recognized business entity. 10
(2) "Digital identification" means information stored on a 11
digital network that may be accessed by a commercial entity and that 12
serves as proof of the identity of an individual. 13
(3) "Distribute" means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, 14
transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any means.15
(4) "Minor" means an individual younger than 18 years of age.16
(5) "News-gathering organization" includes: 17
(a) An employee of a newspaper, news publication, or news source, 18
printed or on an online or mobile platform, of current news and 19
public interest, who is acting within the course and scope of that 20
H-2506.1
HOUSE BILL 2112
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2026 Regular Session
By Representatives Leavitt, Corry, Ryu, Barnard, Callan, Schmidt,
Richards, Eslick, Zahn, Paul, Rule, Street, Duerr, Gregerson, Reeves,
McClintock, Dent, Graham, Fosse, and Timmons
Prefiled 12/08/25. Read first time 01/12/26. Referred to Committee
on Consumer Protection & Business.
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employment and can provide documentation of that employment with the 1
newspaper, news publication, or news source; and 2
(b) An employee of a radio broadcast station, television 3
broadcast station, cable television operator, or wire service who is 4
acting within the course and scope of that employment and can provide 5
documentation of that employment. 6
(6) "Publish" means to communicate or make information available 7
to another person or entity on a publicly available internet website.8
(7) "Sexual material harmful to minors" includes any material 9
that: 10
(a) The average person applying contemporary community standards 11
would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to 12
minors, is designed to appeal to or pander to the prurient interest;13
(b) In a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, 14
exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of descriptions of 15
actual, simulated, or animated displays or depictions of:16
(i) A person's pubic hair, anus, or genitals or the nipple of the 17
female breast; 18
(ii) Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, 19
buttocks, anuses, or genitals; or 20
(iii) Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral 21
copulation, flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any 22
other sexual act; and 23
(c) Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, 24
political, or scientific value for minors. 25
(8) "Transactional data" means a sequence of information that 26
documents an exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, 27
commercial entity, or third party used for the purpose of satisfying 28
a request or event. The term includes records from mortgage, 29
education, and employment entities. 30
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) A commercial entity that knowingly and 31
intentionally publishes or distributes material on an internet 32
website, including a social media platform, and more than one-third 33
of which is sexual material harmful to minors, shall use reasonable 34
age verification methods as described by section 3 of this act to 35
verify that an individual attempting to access the material is 18 36
years of age or older.37
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(2) A commercial entity or third party that performs age 1
verification required by this chapter may not retain any identifying 2
information of the individual. 3
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A commercial entity subject to age 4
verification requirements under this chapter, or a third party that 5
performs age verification under this chapter, shall require an 6
individual who must verify their age to:7
(1) Provide digital identification; or 8
(2) Comply with a commercial age verification system that 9
verifies age using: 10
(a) Government-issued identification; or 11
(b) A commercially reasonable method that relies on public or 12
private transactional data to verify the age of an individual.13
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A commercial entity required to use 14
reasonable age verification methods under this chapter shall:15
(1) Display notices, to be developed by the department of health, 16
on the landing page of the internet website on which sexual material 17
harmful to minors is published or distributed and all advertisements 18
for that internet website in 14-point font or larger. The notices 19
must include information pertaining to the youth health risks 20
associated with adult content; 21
(2) Display the most updated contact information for the 22
substance abuse and mental health services administration helpline.23
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. (1) This chapter does not apply to a bona 24
fide news or public interest broadcast, website video, report, or 25
event and may not be construed to affect the rights of a news-26
gathering organization.27
(2) An internet service provider, or its affiliates or 28
subsidiaries, a search engine, or a cloud service provider may not be 29
held to have violated this chapter solely for providing access or 30
connection to or from a website or other information or content on 31
the internet or on a facility, system, or network not under that 32
provider's control, including transmission, downloading, intermediate 33
storage, access software, or other services to the extent the 34
provider or search engine is not responsible for the creation of the 35
content that constitutes sexual material harmful to minors.36
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(3) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed in any manner to 1
prohibit any activity protected under the Constitution of the United 2
States or the Washington state Constitution. The legislature does not 3
intend this chapter to allow and this chapter shall not allow actions 4
to be brought for constitutionally protected activity.5
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. (1)(a) If the attorney general believes 6
that an entity is violating or has violated this chapter and the 7
action is in the public interest, the attorney general may bring an 8
action in Thurston county superior court or the superior court in the 9
county in which the principal place of business of the entity is 10
located in this state to enjoin the violation, recover a civil 11
penalty, and obtain other relief the court considers appropriate.12
(b) The attorney general may issue written civil investigative 13
demands for documents, oral testimony, and answers to written 14
interrogatories when investigating possible violations of this act as 15
provided by RCW 19.86.110. 16
(2) A civil penalty imposed under this section for a violation of 17
this chapter may be in an amount equal to not more than the total, if 18
applicable, of: 19
(a) $10,000 per day that the entity operates an internet website 20
in violation of the age verification requirements of this chapter;21
(b) $10,000 per instance when the entity retains identifying 22
information in violation of this chapter; and 23
(c) If, because of the entity's violation of the age verification 24
requirements of this chapter, one or more minors accesses sexual 25
material harmful to minors, an additional amount of not more than 26
$250,000. 27
(3) The amount of a civil penalty under this section shall be 28
based on: 29
(a) The seriousness of the violation, including the nature, 30
circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violation;31
(b) The history of any previous violations; 32
(c) The amount necessary to deter a future violation;33
(d) The economic effect of a penalty on the entity on whom the 34
penalty will be imposed; 35
(e) The entity's knowledge that the act constituted a violation 36
of this chapter; and 37
(f) Any other matter that justice may require.38
p. 4 HB 2112
(4) If the attorney general prevails in an action brought to 1
enforce this section, the attorney general shall recover reasonable 2
attorneys' fees and costs incurred in investigating the violation and 3
litigating the action. 4
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Sections 1 through 6 and 9 of this act 5
constitute a new chapter in Title 19 RCW.6
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. If any provision of this act or its 7
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the 8
remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other 9
persons or circumstances is not affected.10
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. This act shall be known as the keep our 11
children safe act.12
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