Utah Age Verification Law

Utah’s age verification law requires social media sites, including pornographic websites, to verify user age each time they use the website or potentially face lawsuits. The issue of age verification on adult content sites has been on the watch of lawmakers since it was declared a public health crisis in 2016 in Utah.

Under SB 287, there are specific requirements for age verification. These include:

• User verification. All users must verify they are at least 18 years old by providing a digitized identification card.
• Parental consent. Social media platforms must accurately verify the ages of users and obtain parental consent for minors.
• Written confirmation. Companies must provide written confirmation of the age verification method and its results within 72 hours.
• In-house or a third-party service. Customer verification can also be implemented and used through an independent, third-party age verification solution provider.

Under the Utah age verification law, commercial companies are liable for damages from a minor accessing inappropriate material. This includes court charges and reasonable attorney fees as ordered by the court. Companies may face fines of up to $2,500 per violation. Additionally, companies are required to delete users’ verification data within 45 days.

The most common method for companies to verify age is through digitized identification cards. In practice, this means:

• Asking users to take a picture of their ID document.
• Cross-checking the provided information against various databases for authenticity.
• Using biometric facial recognition scans to estimate age and ensure that the person’s face is genuine and matches the photo on their uploaded document. 

This ensures that the person attempting to access age-restricted content is indeed of legal age. For age-restricted service providers, this helps ensure compliance with age verification laws while building a trusted, secure digital platform that preserves its reputation.

Some argue that this age verification damages users’ privacy due to the requirement for websites to verify user ages, which involves collecting personal data. However, state officials and compliance specialists address these concerns by reassuring that Utah’s age verification law mandates that websites must not retain ID information and are subject to lawsuits if they fail to verify ages properly. 

On the contrary, there are legal challenges claiming that the law violates privacy and First Amendment rights by requiring extensive personal data for verification. Critics argue that providing government-issued ID or similar evidence for social media accounts impacts user privacy. Despite that, third-party KYC automation providers and other RegTech specialists ensure that digital age verification systems today are secure and comply with the highest security standards, which guarantee user privacy, despite having to upload documents or selfies.