SCREEN Act (2025)

Federal age-verification mandate. Key Provisions:

• Platforms that create, host, or distribute pornographic content must use technology to verify users’ ages and block minors from accessing such content.
• Age-verify traffic from IP addresses known to be used by VPNs.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for enforcement. It will conduct audits and enforce penalties for noncompliance.
• Platforms can contract third parties for age verification, but the platforms remain completely liable for compliance.
• Platforms must implement data security measures and limit retention of verification data, as breaches could lead to lawsuits or FTC penalties.

On December 11, 2025, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade approved an amended version for consideration by the full House Energy and Commerce committee. The amended House version is different in several ways from the Senate version:

• only applies to platforms where more than 1/3 of the content is “sexual material harmful to minors”
• allows states to bring civil enforcement lawsuits on behalf of their residents
• pre-empts (disallows enforcement of) state age verification laws