New Jersey S4455

Explicitly extends New Jersey’s existing law against distributing obscenity to minors to apply to websites. The bill defines failing to age-verify a user as “promoting obscene material” to a minor, which is subject to criminal prosecution (third-degree crime, punishable by 3–5 years in prison and/or up to $15,000 fine) and an additional fine of up to $50,000.

Other relevant features:

• Enforcement: criminal charges, fines
• Age verification mechanisms allowed:
  • State-run digital ID systems (e.g., NJ MVC driver’s license ID verification).
  • Commercial third-party age verification services (websites responsible for ensuring that the provider does not retain, sell, or share user data).
  • Proprietary systems developed by the website itself, under the same data restrictions.
• Applies to “obscene material” for minors, which is roughly analogous to what other states call “material harmful to minors.”
• Applies to websites where:
  • One-third of revenue comes from obscene content,
  • One-third of user accounts show such content, or
  • One-third of the content on any single account is obscene.