OTTAWA—Canada's age verification measure targeting adult entertainment content advanced out of the Senate on third reading on Wednesday and is now headed to the House of Commons for the next phase of potentially becoming national law.
Bill S-209, proposed by a coalition of lawmakers led by Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne, a progressive from French-speaking Quebec, would be a major expansion of age verification power over a country that is home to some of the largest adult industry companies in the world, including Aylo and Gamma.
If adopted, S-209 would make it a legal requirement for age verification, as conducted by a third party, to be applied to any entity operating in Canada's digital space that deals in "making pornographic material available on the Internet for commercial purposes.”
Websites that do not follow the rules may face penalties reaching $250,000 for an initial violation and as much as $500,000 for any repeat offenses.
The process of advancing S-209 is still ongoing as it faces another long road through the Commons. Note that the timeline for Miville-Dechêne's first introduction of the bill initiated in May of 2025. It is highly likely that S-209 could take another year for passage.
