Legislative Update: 6/5/23
More state legislatures ended their 2023 sessions in the past 2 weeks, giving us a final resolution on several of the bills we’ve been tracking this year.
Age Verification
Last week, FSC filed for a preliminary injunction to block Utah’s age verification law from being enforced while our case is pending.
Texas passed HB 1181, a bizarre spinoff of Louisiana’s law that requires sites to display false anti-porn propaganda on their websites. It currently awaits the Governor’s signature, after which it will take effect on September 1, 2023. See our AVS Mandate Effective Dates page for a timeline of when each age verification bill takes effect.
The Louisiana Senate passed HB 77, which will allow that state’s attorney general to enforce their age verification mandate (in addition to private lawsuits). The next step is to send it for the Governor’s signature, after which it will take effect on August 1, 2023.
On the brighter side, a handful of age verification bills failed, including the other two Texas bills, device filter mandates in Oklahoma and Missouri, and the very recently-introduced Alabama bill.
Free Expression
Oklahoma passed a curious (and blatantly unconstitutional) bill that makes it unlawful for a person who pays for a sexual encounter to publish a review of that sexual encounter or to publish a review of the “pubic area, buttocks, or breasts experienced in the sexual encounter on a website that facilitates, encourages, offers, solicits or promotes sexual conduct with another for a fee”. It takes effect July 1, 2023.
