Many states require porn sites to verify their users’ age. Colorado may be next.
Senate Bill 201 would require pornographic websites that are accessible in Colorado to verify their users are at least 18 years old, either by sharing photo ID or through photos screened by artificial intelligence. The governor is skeptical.
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Colorado may become the latest state to require pornographic websites to verify that their users are at least 18 years old.
That is if the bipartisan group of state lawmakers behind the effort can persuade a highly skeptical Gov. Jared Polis to get on board.
Senate Bill 201 would mandate that pornographic websites that are accessible in Colorado check to make sure their users are of age either through examination of a government-issued ID or by using artificial intelligence to screen photos of people — either of their face or hand, where certain bones and tendons can indicate how old someone is — trying to access their explicit content.
“This bill is about protecting children,” said Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, an Arvada Democrat and one of the lead sponsors of the bill. “We are not banning porn, and we are not banning an adult’s access to pornography sites. Colorado already enforces age restrictions on the purchase of adult magazines, alcohol, marijuana, nicotine and gambling, but not on pornography.”
When kids have access to pornographic content, especially violent pornographic content, there can be serious downstream effects, Daugherty and advocates of sexual assault victims said.
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“There is a direct and significant link between early exposure to pornography and that individual causing sexual harm to others,” Elizabeth Newman, the public policy director for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, testified at the statehouse last week. “Given these risks, it is reasonable to require websites that host pornographic material to take steps to prevent children from accessing it.”
Colorado’s approach would be different from that of the more than 20 states, including Texas, Utah and Florida, that already require age verification for porn sites. In other parts of the country with age-verification laws, most of them dominated by Republicans, users can only use ID to confirm they are old enough to view explicit material.
Other states also require that age verification happens when more than a third of a website’s content is pornographic. Senate Bill 201 would only apply to the content itself, not an entire website.
Senate Bill 201 would also require porn sites to attempt to verify the age of people seeking to upload content.
Adult websites would be required to immediately delete any users’ personal information once the age verification process was complete. The measure, if signed into law, would take effect on July 1, 2026.
“We have written the bill in a way that we think avoids some of the constitutional challenges and honors, in a robust way, the First Amendment and free speech,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican and another lead sponsor of the bill.
Lundeen said the bill was drafted using lessons from Europe, where age verification is more widespread.
Opponents of the measure, including pornographic sites and free speech proponents, see it differently.
“Bills like this have been in effect in other states for several years now, so we don’t need to guess about what their effect is,” said Alison Boden, who leads the Free Speech Coalition, a national porn industry trade group. “We’ve learned how they work in practice. The answer is that they don’t.”
Boden said requiring porn sites to verify users’ age would funnel children to other parts of the internet where there are even fewer safeguards.
Porn sites have chosen in some cases to block users in states with age verification laws from accessing their explicit content instead of trying to comply with the rules.
Senate Bill 201 cleared its first hurdle Thursday when it passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee by an 8-1 vote.
But even if that smooth legislative sailing continues, the measure faces an uncertain future with the governor.
“The governor fundamentally trusts parents more than the government when it comes to raising children, including how and if the internet is accessed,” a spokesman for Polis said in a written statement. “He also values ensuring people’s personal data is kept safe and secure and has serious questions about how the bill will ensure that’s the case.”
The governor also said the sponsors of Senate Bill 201 should hold off on their measure until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a porn-site age verification case out of Texas.
Oral arguments in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, which challenges the constitutionality of requiring porn-site users to verify their age, went before the court in January. A ruling is expected this summer.
“There will be more legal clarity on this issue after the court rules on Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton this summer and he encourages sponsors to wait until then,” the Polis’ spokesman said.
Lundeen said when he spoke with the governor about Senate Bill 201 he didn’t hear a “hell no,” which he interpreted as meaning there’s a path to getting Polis to sign the measure if it clears the legislature.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor. The House lead sponsors of the bill are Democratic Reps. Meghan Lukens of Steamboat Springs and Mandy Lindsay of Aurora.
