Legislative Update: 6/20/23

Age Verification

Texas’ governor signed HB 1181, an age verification mandate that requires sites to display false anti-porn propaganda on their websites. It will take effect on September 1, 2023.

Louisiana’s governor signed HB 77, which will allow that state’s attorney general to enforce their age verification mandate (in addition to private lawsuits). It will take effect on August 1, 2023.

See our AVS Mandate Effective Dates page for the dates each new age verification bill takes effect.

Also in Louisiana

The state senate approved a resolution to create a task force to study Louisiana’s prostitution laws, chaired by a representative from Operation Restoration, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of formerly and currently incarcerated women. It requires the task force to produce a written report by March 1, 2024.

Louisiana’s legislature also passed SB 175, which creates the crime of “unlawful deepfakes.” The law prohibits knowingly creating or possessing a sexually explicit deepfake of another person without consent (as well as the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes of minors). It’s expected to take effect August 1st.

Federal Legislation

The REPORT Act, a bill proposing to make it more illegal not to report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the authorities, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The proposal would increase the fines for failing to report CSAM content to NCMEC’s CyberTipline from $150,000 to up to $1 million.