Online Safety: New Rules for Uploading Adult Content
A senate committee must act next: committee consideration.
While protecting people from non-consensual imagery has broad support, the strict ID requirements for all users often face heavy opposition over privacy and free speech concerns.
Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works
Websites and apps that host user-generated adult content, many of them small operations, must build identity and age verification systems and keep signed consent forms and government IDs for every person shown in an image. Failing to do so risks fines of up to $10,000 per day per image, a cost that could push smaller platforms out of business or force them to shut down entirely.
“The Attorney General may impose a civil penalty on any provider of a covered platform that violates subsection (b)(1) in an amount of not more than $10,000 for each day during which a pornographic image remains on the covered platform in violation of that subsection”
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
The PROTECT Act introduces stringent record-keeping and age verification requirements for all adult content platforms. By redefining consent and imposing $10,000 daily penalties for unverified content, the bill could force websites to purge massive amounts of user-generated material.
The PROTECT Act of 2026 mandates that pornography hosting sites verify the age and identity of content uploaders. It requires sites to obtain consent forms for individuals in uploaded content, with unauthorized images to be removed within 72 hours or face a $10,000 daily civil penalty.
No votes or related bills recorded for this bill yet.
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
PROTECT Act of 2026
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