Alabama HB 164 (Age Verification)

Alabama, United StatesAL HB 164Updated October 1, 2024

100%became law
Bad for your rightsLaw
  1. Introduced
  2. Passed House
  3. Passed Senate
  4. Became Law

In force

Alabama's adult-site age check, backed by both a $10,000 state penalty and private lawsuits, with a ban on keeping the ID.

Latest update

Took effect

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The bill

Read the full billOfficial bill record

Key facts

Where
Alabama, United States
Bill number
AL HB 164
Status
Law
Threat
High
Last update
October 1, 2024

Topics

Age VerificationDigital ID

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What it does

Alabama HB 164 makes any commercial site where more than a third of the content is sexual material harmful to minors run a reasonable age check giving assurance a visitor is 18. The Attorney General can fine violators up to $10,000 each and seek emergency injunctions, a person harmed can sue, and the site and its verifier are barred from keeping any identifying data.

What’s at stake

Alabama pairs a state fine with a no-retention rule, which is the law trying to have it both ways: demand the ID, then forbid storing it. The demand is enforceable; the promise not to keep the data is only as good as the audit behind it.

Our take

Alabama wrote the no-retention clause that shows up across these laws, the reassurance that your ID vanishes after the check. It is a promise on paper, and it exists because the state knows the check itself is the privacy problem.

Timeline

  1. Took effectLatest

  2. Signed into law (Act 2024-97)

The record

Sponsor

Rep. Ben Robbins

Votes

  • House: Passed (101 to 1), February 29, 2024
  • Senate: Passed (34 to 0), April 9, 2024