West Virginia HB 5272

Age verification mandate. Relevant features:

• Enforcement:
  • private lawsuits
  • civil fines of “not less than $25,000 for each violation…in addition to any other damages that may have been incurred”
• Age verification mechanisms allowed:
  • digitized identification card
  • verification through an independent, third-party age verification service that compares the personal information entered by the individual who is seeking access to the material that is available from a commercially available database, or aggregate of databases, that is regularly used by government agencies and businesses for the purpose of age and identity verification
  • any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data
• Empowers the Department of Human Services to propose the rules for implementation.