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Committee advances bill requiring age verification for adult-content sites and a 2% excise tax to fund youth mental health
Summary
SB 73 would require adult-content websites that meet a 33.3% threshold to age-verify users, prohibit encouraging VPN evasion, authorize the Division of Consumer Protection to set age-assurance rules, and create a 2% excise tax on qualifying transactions with 90% of revenue dedicated to youth mental-health programs and 10% to enforcement.
SALT LAKE CITY — The House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Thursday gave a favorable recommendation to SB 73 (third substitute), a bill that tightens online age verification for websites containing material harmful to minors and creates a targeted excise tax to fund mental-health prevention and enforcement.
Senator Musselman, sponsor of the bill, said SB 73 builds on Utah’s 2023 age-gating law by making age verification an affirmative requirement for sites that meet a statutory threshold. "Establishes a 2% excise tax ... on transactions for content harmful to minors," the sponsor said, adding that 90% of the revenue would go into a restricted account for early prevention, treatment, public education and research on harms from adult…
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