Residents of Washington could shortly be required to submit identification to enter websites offering explicit material. State Representative Mari Leavitt has put forward House Bill 2112 in the House of Representatives, referred to informally as the Keep Our Children Safe Act. Drawing parallels to measures in various other states, the legislation seeks to bar individuals younger than 18 from accessing online sexual content considered harmful.
For residents in Washington, this might mean encountering sites that solicit digital proofs of age or require navigation through a verification process involving official government documents. Platforms where more than one-third of the material constitutes sexual content detrimental to minors risk facing substantial civil fines enforced by the state attorney general for non-compliance.
Such provisions may seem recognizable, given that multiple states have adopted analogous requirements. Washington's draft measure mirrors the Texas age verification policy, which took effect in September 2023 and received recent validation from the U.S. Supreme Court. Echoing sentiments toward the Texas rule, numerous organizations raised objections during the House committee's public sessions. The Seattle Times noted that the ACLU, Lavender Rights Project, and Northwest Progressive Institute pointed out dangers to privacy from possible data leaks alongside the ambiguous phrasing defining harmful sexual material for minors in the proposal.