Iowa SF 2159

Age verification mandate that creates liability for distributing or facilitating access to adult content (emphasis added below):

• “A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally facilitates access to material harmful to minors on an internet site, including social media, of which more than one-third of the content is material harmful to minors, shall use reasonable age verification to ensure that a user attempting to access the internet site is not a minor.”

• “A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of material harmful to minors on an internet site shall use reasonable age verification to ensure that a user attempting to access the internet site is not a minor.”

• "A commercial entity that distributes material harmful to minors on an internet site shall use reasonable age verification to ensure that a user attempting to access the internet site is not a minor.”

Note that the third requirement does not specify that the distribution be knowing and intentional, nor is it limited to sites that contain more than one-third adult content.

According to the bill, the term “distribute” means “to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmute, circulate, or disseminate by any means.” The bill does not define what it means to “facilitate access” to material.

Reasonable age verification is defined as:

• digital ID or mobile identification
• verification using transactional data
• “independent, third-party age verification service that compares the personal information entered by an individual to information 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”

Enforcement:

• Parents or guardians of minors that access material lacking age verification may sue for actual damages, attorney fees, expert witness fees, and court costs (minimum $5,000 per violation). Punitive damages and class actions are authorized.
• The attorney general may seek injunctive and other equitable relief against violators.
• The bill also allows an individual to assert a violation of the bill as a claim in any judicial or administrative proceeding and allows an action under the bill to commence, and relief to be granted, in a court of the state without regard to whether the individual commencing the action has sought or exhausted available administrative remedies.