Kentucky HB 278 (Age Verification)

Kentucky, United StatesKY HB 278Updated July 15, 2024

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

In force

Kentucky's adult-site age check, with a $10,000 penalty for each failed verification and $1,000 a day for keeping a user's ID.

Latest update

Took effect

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The bill

Read the full billOfficial bill record

Key facts

Where
Kentucky, United States
Bill number
KY HB 278
Status
Law
Threat
High
Last update
July 15, 2024

Topics

Age VerificationDigital ID

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What it does

Kentucky HB 278 makes any commercial site where more than a third of the content is harmful to minors verify a visitor's age before granting access, using a government ID or a commercially reasonable method reading transaction data. A private lawsuit can recover $10,000 for each failed check and $1,000 for every day the site knowingly holds onto identifying data.

What’s at stake

The per-day penalty for retained data puts a price on the exact risk age checks create. Kentucky is telling operators to verify identity and then not keep it, which is hard to guarantee once the data exists.

Our take

Kentucky priced the privacy danger directly: $1,000 a day for hanging onto the ID it forced you to hand over. That the legislature had to write that penalty at all shows it knew the age check builds a data trail worth suing over.

Timeline

  1. Took effectLatest

  2. Signed into law

The record

Sponsor

Rep. Matt Lockett

Votes

  • House: Passed (92 to 0), February 26, 2024
  • Senate: Passed (36 to 0), March 27, 2024