Pennsylvania SB 603 (Adult-Site ID and Data Checks)

Pennsylvania, United StatesPennsylvania SB 603Updated September 28, 2026

50%of the way to law
Bad for your rightsIn progress
  1. Introduced
  2. Passed Senate
  3. Passed House
  4. Became Law

Reported from Senate Judiciary 12-2 as amended; awaiting Senate floor

Pennsylvania would make visitors to adult websites prove their age by having their personal details matched against commercial identity databases or records such as mortgage, education and employment data.

Latest update

Senate Judiciary adopted amendment A04281 14-0 and reported the bill as amended 12-2 (PN 1971); first consideration

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The bill

Read the full billOfficial bill record

Key facts

Where
Pennsylvania, United States
Bill number
Pennsylvania SB 603
Status
In progress
Introduced
April 9, 2025
Threat
High
Last update
September 28, 2026

Topics

Age VerificationDigital IDCensorshipPrivacy

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What it does

SB 603 requires any commercial website where more than 33.3% of the material is "harmful to minors" to verify the age of the people who access it. The approved methods are a third-party service that matches the details a visitor enters against commercial identity databases, or any commercially reasonable method using "public or private transactional data," which the bill defines to include mortgage, education and employment records. Sites and verifiers may not retain identifying information, and enforcement runs through private lawsuits for damages plus court costs and attorney fees, with no attorney general role. The Senate Judiciary Committee amended the bill on September 28, 2026 to track the Miller obscenity test upheld in FSC v. Paxton, and the act would take effect 90 days after enactment; a House companion, HB 1513, sits in the House Communications and Technology Committee.

What’s at stake

Adults who want to view lawful material must hand over identifying details and let a third party check them against databases built from their financial, school and job histories. Anonymous access to these sites ends, and the no-retention rule depends on sites and vendors honoring it, with an individual lawsuit as the only remedy after a breach.

Our take

Pennsylvania wants adults to be looked up in mortgage, school and employment records before they can open a legal website. The deletion clause leaves the lookup itself untouched: the data still flows to a verifier on every visit, and the one-third threshold is an invitation to argue over which sites qualify. We oppose SB 603 and its House twin.

Timeline

  1. Senate Judiciary adopted amendment A04281 14-0 and reported the bill as amended 12-2 (PN 1971); first considerationLatest

  2. Introduced (PN 611) and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee

The record

Sponsors

Sen. Cris Dush, Sen. Judy Ward, Sen. Wayne Fontana, Sen. Pat Stefano, Sen. Greg Rothman

Votes

  • Senate Judiciary Committee: Reported as amended (12 to 2), September 28, 2026