CARSON CITY, Nev.—Nevada state lawmakers last week introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 294, a proposal calling for age verification systems for adult entertainment websites.
Introduced Feb. 25 by Nevada state Assms. Toby Yurek, a Republican, and Elaine Marzola, a Democrat, AB 294 would require verification for minors under the age of 18 years on websites containing “material that is harmful to minors.”
Similar to dozens of proposals across the United States, the bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor. AB 294 provides for “reasonable” age verification measures, including verification means like government ID, private transactional data and other third-party services.
“A person who willfully violates this section is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each violation,” reads the draft legislation. "The attorney general of Nevada may recover the penalty in a civil action brought in the name of the State of Nevada in any court of competent jurisdiction.”
“This bill introduces new regulations to protect minors from accessing harmful online content by requiring online platforms, websites, and internet-based services that primarily publish material harmful to minors to establish robust age verification systems,” adult industry attorney Corey Silverstein told AVN. "This is very much copycat legislation and is another state jumping on the bandwagon. I doubt Nevada will be the last state we see passing similar legislation.”
Additionally, Silverstein reiterated his firm belief that the U.S. Supreme Court will deem age verification laws unconstitutional in the case before it of Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton, brought by adult industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition and other industry stakeholders against the state of Texas over its age verification law, House Bill 1181.
“My views haven’t changed, and I consider Nevada’s age verification law just as unconstitutional as similar bills in other states," he said. "I remain optimistic that when the SCOTUS releases its opinion on Texas’ age verification bill in June, we will witness a substantial shift in the tides.”
