Senator Mike Lee pushes federal age-verification law targeting online porn

Sen. Mike Lee introduced the SCREEN Act, a federal proposal that would force every online pornography site to prove a visitor’s age before allowing entry, aiming to curb the reported exposure of minors to explicit material. The measure passed the House of Representatives and is now pending Senate approval, reflecting broad public support—81 % in a poll—and mirroring age-verification statutes already adopted by 27 states.

Pornhub responded with a letter criticizing the bill, suggesting that responsibility should fall on device manufacturers rather than the sites themselves, and raising concerns about user-data handling, though the legislation explicitly prohibits retaining verification data beyond its immediate use. The company also warned that stricter rules might boost illegal, black-market porn, a claim lawmakers counter by citing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s aggressive enforcement against non-compliant sites. Proponents argue that the act would protect children from documented harms linked to early porn consumption, while also enhancing privacy by limiting data collection on adult sites that already leak information to third parties.