Kentucky HB 278 (Adult Content)
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.
Why it matters
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.
Votes
- House — Passed (92 to 0) · February 26, 2024
- Senate — Passed (36 to 0) · March 27, 2024
Timeline
- April 5, 2024Signed into law
- July 15, 2024Took effect
Our coverage: all age-verification stories · Status checked July 19, 2026