WASHINGTON—A new proposal before the U.S. Senate, now sporting bipartisan support, could invite a national digital assurance standard for age-gating minors under 18 years old.
Led by Democratic Sens. Andy Kim of New Jersey and Adam Schiff of California, along with Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming, the so-called Digital Age Assurance Act would establish a state- and federal-level compliance system that requires age verification at the level of a device's operating system.
This is similar to legislation adopted by the California state legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2025. The California law is set to enter force on Jan. 1, 2027; it also requires the companies that own and operate device operating systems to develop a way for users to confirm their ages efficiently.
This also means that age verification must be confirmed when users wish to download and purchase apps and content from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
With this state legislation as a model for the federal Digital Age Assurance Act, it could be a compromise of interests looking to ensure free expression versus online safety.
Sen. Kim explained, "We owe it to parents and kids to put guardrails in place before more harm is done. The Digital Age Assurance Act puts kids’ data privacy first as we make sure Congress and tech companies do their part to make online spaces safer for our kids."
Sen. Lummis expressed praise for the concepts of the bill, saying, "In Wyoming, we believe protecting our kids and protecting our freedoms go hand in hand, and this bill proves you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other." This is important to note, as many of the age verification laws currently on the books across the country require AI facial scans and IDs.
"That’s why I’m proud to work with Senators Kim, Lummis, and Barrasso on a comprehensive federal age-assurance framework that follows California’s important work in this space and ensures that the digital content kids see is age-appropriate and that their privacy is protected from invasive data collection," added Schiff in the same statement.
Age verification legislation has advanced at the federal and state levels at a rate entirely unexpected by advocates for both the online adult entertainment and mainstream technology industries. Over half of state governments in the U.S. have adopted some form of age-verification statute or regulation, predominantly in Republican states such as Wyoming.
Even though the trend of age verification legislation specifically targeting adult entertainment websites in the U.S. originated from the fringes of the more conservative wings of the Republican Party, such laws and regulatory posturing indeed have gone bipartisan as legal compliance now foreshadows a verified, non-anonymous digital landscape.
As a result of this, adult industry stakeholders have tried to find compromises that minimize data collection by large age verification software providers and other technology vendors.
For adult entertainment industry trade organization the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), this came in the context of advocating for legislation similar to what the senators have gone forward to propose. Alison Boden, executive director of the FSC, explained to AVN today that she and her team spoke with Sen. Kim and his office during the drafting phases of the federal Digital Age Assurance Act. The likelihood of the legislation advancing is not yet known.
"We’re thrilled to see a bipartisan bill that takes an effective, device-based approach to proving age online," Boden said. However, she did explain that current language in the bill is potentially problematic because it could leave individuals 18 or older without the type of "privacy-preserving solution" that is proposed to cover minors' online safety.
If adopted into law by both chambers of Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, the Digital Age Assurance Act would establish a device-level age assurance and verification system required to generate so-called "age brackets" that apps and websites would utilize to gather age compliance signals rather than collecting exact age information.
The bill also limits how age-related data can be collected, shared and used, bans children's personal data from being sold to data brokers, and bars the information from being used for profiling or targeted advertising. It also requires the establishment of a national baseline for online child privacy protections while preserving online access. Boden said that the FSC is working with the senators to introduce age brackets that cover individuals over the age of 18 effectively.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would also be granted authority to enforce provisions of the legislation alongside state attorneys general. The punishments for violating the bill include potential civil penalties of up to $2,500 per "negligent violation" and $7,500 per "knowing or intentional violation," which may be multiplied by the number of children affected.
Interestingly enough, the federal Digital Age Assurance Act is a proposal that could win favor from one of the most outspoken industry proponents of device-based age verification.
"While we will not comment on hypotheticals, we are glad to see lawmakers recognize that kid-safe phones can provide a more consistent and privacy-protective way to help keep minors away from age-restricted content," a spokesperson for Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, told AVN. Amid the onslaught of site-level age verification laws, the senior leadership of Aylo and its ownership group, the Ottawa-based private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners, has withdrawn from the digital spaces of entire states and countries.
"Since April 2026, when Apple's age verification solution was implemented in the U.K., Pornhub has experimented with Apple’s solution and has seen it successfully prevent minors from accessing adult content," the spokesperson said, alluding to the success of Apple's iOS update in the U.K. that established age signals restoring access for millions of adult users.
"It is our view that children in the U.K. using Apple devices with the most up-to-date version of iOS are benefiting from the strongest level of protection from age-inappropriate content online," the spokesperson said. "Adult sites are blocked by default, and VPNs do not work to circumvent these blocks.
"We are determined to be part of this solution and want to collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective kid-safe-by-default solution," the Aylo spokesperson added. Most age verification measures currently in place throughout much of the world are widely considered ineffective and privacy-violating because of VPN circumvention.
