The Utah Department of Commerce will begin enforcing key provisions of Senate Bill (SB) 73, a set of age verification amendments, on November 2. This enforcement targets adult entertainment websites operating within the state's digital space.

Enforcement Details and Scope

Margaret Woolley Busse, the commerce commissioner and head of the department under Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, announced that her agency's regulatory enforcement will commence on November 2. Busse stated that any porn website will be required to verify the age of its user. If the user is 18 or older, they can continue; if younger, they cannot continue.

State lawmakers adopted SB 73 earlier this year, introducing stricter requirements and penalties for violating age verification statutes. Age verification targeting adult websites has been in place in Utah since 2023. The new provisions give the Division of Consumer Protection the ability to enforce the age-verification mandate and require platforms to age-verify any users physically located in Utah, regardless of their IP address.

The Utah Department of Commerce will deploy new technologies to examine websites where more than a third of the content is pornographic and advertised as an adult site. These technologies will determine if sites are truly carrying out age verification, where a user's identity is confirmed to be above the legal age, rather than merely having a button for users to claim they are over 18.

Busse told KSL-TV that "Porn is one of the most damaging content that we see out there in general and I think people recognize that it screws them up mentally. ... These are just not good sites, and frankly, the purveyors of them—I don't know how they sleep at night."

Blocked Provisions and Ongoing Litigation

A key part of SB 73 attempted to ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other proxy technology available to consumers to circumvent statewide content blocks. However, a federal district judge blocked enforcement of the VPN provisions of SB 73. This block resulted from a lawsuit initially filed by Aylo, the Montreal-based parent company of Pornhub, as reported on October 13. Enforcement of other provisions in the law remains permissible.

The original law also banned platforms from encouraging the use of VPNs. The Free Speech Coalition noted that compliance strategies relying on IP addresses, such as geoblocking, may not be effective at mitigating liability under the new law. Alison Boden, Executive Director of Free Speech Coalition, stated that "Utah’s new law makes compliance extremely difficult, if not impossible." She added that "Determining geolocation based on IP address is imperfect. With SB 73, Utah is effectively overriding the laws of every other jurisdiction and requiring platforms to age-verify every single visitor to their sites. Platforms should discuss how to approach this situation with their attorneys."

Financial Implications and Industry Response

Another important part of SB 73 is the levy of a new use tax on adult websites. This 2 percent tax on all revenue generated from within the Utah digital space is intended to help pay for the enforcement of the law and further fund programming across the state to support youth mental health. This excise tax on sales of adult content in Utah went into effect on October 1, 2026.

The state employs "auditing infrastructure developed by enterprise technology partners" to detect whether platforms with large amounts of sexually explicit content are age-gating IP addresses from Utah. If the state regulator determines that companies are failing, the law allows for fines of up to $2,500 per violation.

The adult entertainment industry trade group, the Free Speech Coalition, alerted member companies about the enforcement, particularly regarding the tax placed on adult content companies. Jeffrey Douglas, the chair of the Free Speech Coalition's board, issued an advisory at the end of September. He stated that "the potential penalties for noncompliance are substantial, and the willful refusal to pay tax in Utah can result in ... significant fines. ... We understand the concerns about exposure, but recommend that anyone considering noncompliance speak with their counsel.”

Key Facts

  • Enforcement of Utah's SB 73 age verification provisions begins November 2.
  • The law requires adult websites to verify users are 18 or older to access content.
  • A federal judge blocked provisions targeting VPN use due to a lawsuit by Aylo.
  • SB 73 includes a 2 percent use tax on revenue from adult content within Utah's digital space, effective October 1, 2026.
  • Non-compliance can result in fines of up to $2,500 per violation.
  • The Utah Department of Commerce will use "auditing infrastructure" to detect non-compliance.