Alabama HB 164 (Adult Content)
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.
Why it matters
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.
Votes
- House — Passed (101 to 1) · February 29, 2024
- Senate — Passed (34 to 0) · April 9, 2024
Timeline
- April 24, 2024Signed into law (Act 2024-97)
- October 1, 2024Took effect
Our coverage: all age-verification stories · Status checked July 19, 2026