Indiana SB 17 (Age Verification)

BadLawIN SB 17Indiana, United StatesHigh threat
In force; remaining litigation continues
  1. Introduced
  2. Passed Senate
  3. Passed House
  4. Became Law

Stage 4 of 4: Became Law

Indiana's adult-site age check, in force since an appeals court stayed the 2024 injunction against it.

Latest update

Supreme Court upheld Texas’s age-verification requirement in Paxton; this was not a direct ruling on Indiana’s statute

Read the full billView official bill record

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What it does

Indiana SB 17 makes any adult-oriented website with more than a third material harmful to minors verify visitors are 18 using a government digital ID or a third-party check of a driver's license or state ID number. The Attorney General can seek an injunction and civil penalties up to $250,000, and a parent whose child was harmed can also sue.

What’s at stake

Indiana is the patchwork's clearest legal arc. A federal judge blocked the law in 2024 as facially unconstitutional, then the Supreme Court upheld an identical Texas statute in 2025 and pulled the reasoning out from under that injunction.

Our take

Indiana lost the first round when Judge Young called the law facially unconstitutional, then the Supreme Court handed the states the win in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. The lesson every legislature took from Indiana is that the courts stopped being an obstacle.

Timeline

Supreme Court upheld Texas’s age-verification requirement in Paxton; this was not a direct ruling on Indiana’s statuteLatest

Seventh Circuit stayed the injunction, allowing enforcement

District court granted a preliminary injunction

Signed into law

Sponsors

Sen. Mike Bohacek, Sen. Liz Brown

Votes

  • Senate — Passed (44 to 1) · January 18, 2024
  • House — Passed (92 to 2) · February 27, 2024
  • Senate — Concurred (46 to 2) · March 4, 2024

Legal challenges

Free Speech Coalition v. Rokita

The 2024 preliminary injunction was stayed by the Seventh Circuit. After the Supreme Court’s Paxton decision, the appellate court vacated the injunction and remanded on the First Amendment claim, as recounted in Indiana’s December 2025 court filing. Other district-court proceedings continued in 2026.

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