Virginia SB 1515 (Age Verification)
Virginia, United States- Introduced
- Passed Senate
- Passed House
- 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
Current position
In force
What 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.
Why it matters
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 effect
LatestSigned into law
Sponsor
Sen. Bill Stanley
Votes
- Senate — Passed (37 to 3) · February 7, 2023
- House — Passed (96 to 0) · February 23, 2023