Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is in the headlines a lot these days, thanks to the SAVE America Act, the controversial voting registration bill he introduced in congress (which continues to be pushed by Donald Trump as the midterms near). But the MAGA lawmaker is also behind a new federal bill that would make both adult and social media platforms require written consent “for each sex act” shown on their platforms— or pay up to $10,000 per image, per day.
Just last month, on July 25, Lee introduced the PROTECT Act, modeled after North Carolina’s stringent HB 805, that would impose consent and age verification and record-keeping guidelines on any “covered platform” hosting explicit content, mainstream social networks included.
Dubbed the “Preventing Rampant Online Technological and Criminal Trafficking” Act, the legislation would require platforms to take “reasonable steps” to verify the age and consent of everyone appearing in sexual content, and to obtain “explicit written evidence of consent for each sex act.”
NC’s HB 805, which passed last year in North Carolina in spite of a Governor veto, is the most recent law to reference written consent for acts as well as for distribution. It also creates a “right to removal” with operators facing civil penalties up to $10,000 per image, per day for failing to pull non-consensual content within 72 hours.
Covered platforms include a broader range of outlets than ever before, with social networks such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X on the list of who could be charged with civil and criminal penalties for non-compliance.
While HB 805 (which is also known as the “anti-trans bill”) is concerned mostly with quashing LGBTQ+ rights —banning gender-affirming care; adding official state recognition of only two biological sexes (male and female); restricting student access to specific books or class activities based on sex or queer content— its enforcement of age verification (18+) and written consent protocols for online media platforms marks one of the strictest censorship efforts in the country.
Expanding on HB 805’s many discriminatory goals and advancing the state’s penalty-minded statutes into federal law, it’s one more fight the adult industry must contend with against the current administration and its Project 2025-aligned goals. As Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition stated via AVN, the PROTECT Act is “a calculated and purposeful attack on the adult industry.”
