Does Michigan Have an Age Verification Law? (2026)

Michigan does not currently have an enacted law requiring adult websites to verify a visitor's age. Several bills are still live in the Legislature, and the two age-verification models among them take opposite approaches: SB 191 would put the check on the website, while HB 4429 and its identical Senate companion SB 284 would put it on the device and the app store.

Competing Bills, None Enacted

Michigan is not a state where the topic has gone quiet. Four bills touching minors' access to sexual material online are pending at once, and the two that actually turn on age verification represent two different regulatory models.

SB 191 would require a commercial entity operating a website where more than one-third of the content is mature or pornographic to use full identity-based or commercial age-verification methods before granting access, bar retention of identifying information, and give the Attorney General exclusive enforcement authority with a 45-day cure period before a formal action. Civil actions could reach up to $10,000 per violation. Sponsored by Senator Thomas Albert, it was introduced and referred to the Committee on Regulatory Affairs on March 20, 2025, and the Legislature's bill record shows no further committee or floor action since.

HB 4429, introduced by five House Republicans (Brad Paquette, Jason Woolford, Jay DeBoyer, Gina Johnsen, and Joseph Fox), takes a different approach: a device-based, or age-signal, model that would place the age-verification duty on operating systems and app stores rather than on individual adult websites. It was introduced May 6, 2025, and has since been discharged from committee and re-referred multiple times, most recently on March 19, 2026, when it was sent back to the Communications and Technology Committee. That procedural movement shows engagement, not necessarily momentum toward passage; HB 4429 has not received a floor vote in either chamber.

The device-based model is not a one-party proposal, which is easy to miss if you only look at the House. The same digital age assurance act was introduced in the Senate the same day as SB 284, sponsored by four Senate Democrats (John Cherry, Rosemary Bayer, Sam Singh, and Erika Geiss). It carries the same structure: covered manufacturers would estimate a user's age when a device is activated, pass an age signal to sites and apps through an application programming interface, and require parental consent for app-store users under 16. SB 284 has been in the Senate Finance, Insurance and Consumer Protection Committee since May 6, 2025 with no recorded action beyond a co-sponsor being added.

A fourth bill sits outside the age-verification frame entirely. HB 4938, introduced September 11, 2025 by Representative Josh Schriver and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, would not require anyone to check ages; it would prohibit distributing broadly defined material over the internet at all and would impose filtering and takedown duties on internet service providers and platforms. It is worth knowing about because it is often lumped in with the age-verification bills, but it is a different kind of proposal and it has recorded no action since being referred.

The Federal and Multistate Backdrop

No federal law requires age verification for adult content; Congress has considered child-online-safety bills like the Kids Online Safety Act, but none has been signed into law. As of August 2026, twenty-seven states have enacted their own adult-content age-verification statutes, following the Supreme Court's 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton settling intermediate scrutiny as the applicable First Amendment standard. Several of those states, and several App Store Accountability Act states, use the same device-based model HB 4429 and SB 284 propose; see the App Store Accountability Act states page for how that model works where it has already been enacted.

What This Means for Michigan Residents

Because Michigan has no adult-content age-verification statute yet, adult websites have no state-law reason to block Michigan visitors or require an age check before granting access. This research did not find Michigan on any published list of states that Aylo, Pornhub's parent company, currently geo-blocks; that finding rests on secondary aggregator reporting rather than a directly confirmed primary source.

That is not the same as saying Michigan does not regulate minors' access to sexual material at all. Two older statutes already do, and they apply to an actual minor rather than to visitors generally. Under MCL 722.675, knowingly disseminating sexually explicit matter to a minor is a felony punishable by up to 2 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. Under MCL 722.677, knowingly permitting a minor to view such material, or displaying it where a minor can see it, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail, a fine of up to $5,000, or both. Neither statute requires a website to verify anyone's age, which is why Michigan is still counted as a state with no age-verification law. And the amendments that tried to extend these sections to internet communications, 1999 PA 33, were struck down: the Legislature's own page for each section carries a note that a federal court permanently enjoined enforcement of that act in Cyberspace Communications, Inc v Engler.

This page reflects Michigan's status as of September 2, 2026, based on the Michigan Legislature's own bill-tracking records for SB 191, HB 4429, SB 284, and HB 4938 and on the Legislature's published text of MCL 722.675 and MCL 722.677. All four bills remain live in the 2025-2026 session, so this page's snapshot could change before the session ends.

Related Resources

• Age Verification Laws by State
• App Store Age Verification Laws
• Ohio Age Verification Law

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Last updated: 2026-09-02.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an age verification law in Michigan?

No. As of September 2026, Michigan has not enacted a law requiring adult websites to verify a visitor's age. Four related bills remain pending: SB 191, HB 4429, its Senate companion SB 284, and HB 4938, which is a distribution ban rather than an age-verification bill.

What is the difference between SB 191 and HB 4429?

SB 191 would require adult websites themselves to verify visitor age directly, using ID-based or commercial verification. HB 4429, and the identical Senate companion SB 284, instead place the age-signal duty on device operating systems and app stores, a model closer to the App Store Accountability Acts enacted in other states.

Is the device-based bill a Republican bill?

No. HB 4429 was introduced by five House Republicans, but the same digital age assurance act was introduced in the Senate on the same day as SB 284 by four Senate Democrats. In Michigan the device and app-store model has sponsors in both parties.

Could Michigan still pass one of these bills?

Yes. Michigan's 2025-2026 session runs through the end of 2026, and HB 4429 in particular has seen committee activity as recently as March 2026. None of the bills has been formally defeated.

Is porn banned in Michigan?

No, and there is no age-verification requirement either. Adult content remains accessible to adults in Michigan the same way it is in any other state without an enacted age-verification statute. Michigan does, however, make it a crime to knowingly disseminate sexually explicit matter to a minor under MCL 722.675 or to display it to a minor under MCL 722.677.