West Virginia
West Virginia enacted its first age-gating statute in 2026, a law creating civil liability for commercial entities that fail to verify the age of users accessing sexual material harmful to minors, effective June 12, 2026. Earlier attempts in 2024 and 2025 to enact adult content age verification or an app store parental consent requirement died in committee. West Virginia has not enacted a social media minor access law or an age appropriate design code, though bills on both topics have been introduced.
Subnational jurisdiction. Reviewed 2026-07-15.
HB 4412 (2026), Child Online Protection and Liability Act
Requires a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes sexual material harmful to minors, where such material is a substantial portion (more than 33.33 percent) of the entity's content, to verify that a user is 18 or older using digital identification or a commercial or governmental age verification system. Exempts news gathering organizations, internet service providers, search engines, and cloud service providers.
- Citation
- W. Va. Code §§ 49A-1-101 to 49A-1-106
- Status
- In force
- Effective date
- 2026-06-12
- Applies to
- Private sector
- Age threshold
- 18
- Verification methods
- gov id, digital id, transactional data
- Covered services
- Websites or applications where sexual material harmful to minors is a substantial portion of content.
- Penalties
- Private civil action for $10,000 per incident plus attorney fees and actual damages; Attorney General civil penalties of $10,000 per day of violation, $10,000 per instance of improper data retention, and up to $250,000 additional if a minor accesses the material.
- Enforcement body
- West Virginia Attorney General and private civil action.
- Private right of action
- yes
- Source
- W. Va. Code §§ 49A-1-101 to 49A-1-106
Reviewed 2026-07-15. Confidence: high. Fast-moving area, verify before relying. Not legal advice.