Virginia SB 1515 (Age Verification)
Virginia, United StatesHigh threat- Introduced
- Passed Senate
- Passed House
- Became Law
Stage 4 of 4: Became Law
Virginia's 2023 adult-site age check, built as pure civil liability with no regulator and no criminal charge.
Latest update
Took effect
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Take action on this issueWhat it does
Virginia SB 1515 creates civil liability for any commercial site where more than a third of the content is harmful to minors that fails to verify a visitor is 18. Age is proved through a commercial database or another commercially reasonable method reading government ID. A person harmed sues for damages and attorney fees.
What’s at stake
Virginia leaned entirely on private lawsuits, so the deterrent is the threat of being sued rather than a fine from Richmond. The result is the same for a user: an adult site that has to check ID is an adult site that can log who showed it.
Our take
Two years before SB 854 tried to age-gate social media, Virginia had already gated adult sites with SB 1515. The state built the porn-site checkpoint first, found it survived, and came back for the rest of the internet.
Timeline
Took effectLatest
Signed into law
Sponsor
Sen. Bill Stanley
Votes
- Senate — Passed (37 to 3) · February 7, 2023
- House — Passed (96 to 0) · February 23, 2023
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