WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, who last month urged the Department of Justice to ramp up obscenity prosecutions, on Wednesday introduced a bill that would make age verification by adult websites federal law.
S 4741, titled the “Safety and Age Filtering Enforcement for Kids Act of 2026” or the “SAFE for Kids Act of 2026,” would require websites to age-verify users if more than one-third of hosted material is deemed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to be “sexual material harmful to minors.”
The bill largely resembles various state-level AV laws, but includes a “triple threat” enforcement regime. If the bill were to become law, it would not only enable the FTC to pursue civil penalties against alleged violators but would also allow the Department of Justice to pursue criminal charges, with “knowing” violations punishable by million-dollar fines and five-year prison sentences for company officers, directors or employees. In addition, the bill grants a broad private right of action, so any citizen could sue site operators for damages.
Pornography has become a signature issue for Banks, who in May urged Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to reestablish the Department of Justice’s defunct Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in a letter that repeatedly conflated obscenity with constitutionally protected speech.
The SAFE for Kids Act has been referred to the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Whether it gains traction may depend in part on how current efforts to enact broader online safety legislation play out. The proposed Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, which would likewise make age verification by adult websites federal law, appears stalled for the moment and has been vocally opposed by some 44 state attorneys general, who argue that its protections are too weak.
If that legislation fails, the federal AV rule could still be addressed separately via Banks’ bill or the SCREEN Act, which similarly proposes a federal AV mandate. However, the SCREEN Act has so far also failed to advance.
