Colorado legislature rejects porn age-verification bill
A bipartisan bill that would have made Colorado the latest state to require that pornographic websites verify that their users are at least 18 years old was shelved Monday.
Senate Bill 201 was laid over by the Senate until May 8, a day after Colorado’s 2025 legislative session ends, effectively killing the measure.
“While we are confident that this bill has a path forward through the legislature, conditions are such that it doesn’t make sense to move it through the process this year,” state Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, an Arvada Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, said in a written statement. “This bill is about protecting children. We are not banning pornography, and we are not restricting an adult’s access to legal content. We are simply providing the means to enforce laws that already exist.”
Senate Bill 201 would have required pornographic websites that are accessible in Colorado check to make sure their users are of age. The sites could have done so either through examination of a government-issued ID or by using artificial intelligence to screen photos of people — either of their face or hand, where certain bones and tendons can indicate how old someone is — trying to access their explicit content.
The porn industry vehemently opposed the measure, and Gov. Jared Polis indicated he might veto the bill should it make it to his desk.
There are more than 20 states, including Texas, Utah and Florida that already require age verification for porn sites. In other parts of the country with age-verification laws, all of them dominated by Republicans, users can only use ID to confirm they are old enough to view explicit material.
Colorado would have been the first state controlled by Democrats to make the change ifSenate Bill 201 had passed.
Proponents of the measure, including the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said it was aimed at preventing sexual violence. When kids have access to pornographic content, especially violent pornographic content, there can be serious downstream effects, Daugherty and advocates of sexual assault victims testified.
Opponents argued age verification would send underage porn watchers to websites with even less regulation. They also raised free speech concerns.
Requiring porn websites to verify their users’ age is also legally murky.
Oral arguments in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, which challenges the constitutionality of requiring porn-site users to verify their age, went before the U.S. Supreme Court in January. A ruling in the case out of Texas is expected this summer.
Daugherty cited Polis’ skepticism and the pending Supreme Court case in explaining her decision to shelve the bill.
The other lead sponsor of the measure in the Senate was Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican.
Both Daugherty and Lundeen vowed to bring the bill back.
“This conversation must, and will, continue,” Lundeen said.