Iowa law requires age checks on sites with substantial sexual content

A person operating a covered site, app, or content segment must use reasonable age verification to prevent minors from accessing the covered content. The rule covers a site, app, or segment where at least 33 percent of publicly available data is material that appeals to minors' sexual interests, shows specified sexual content in an offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. Age checks may use digital identification, a commercially reasonable method based on transaction records, or a method approved by the attorney general. The chapter does not apply to bona fide news or public interest broadcasts, recordings, reports, or events, or to qualifying news-gathering organizations. Certain providers are also exempt when they only connect users to content outside their control, unless they created the content.

Anyone performing an age check, including a contracted third party, must protect identifying information and use reasonable methods to secure data collected or transmitted. These duties apply to anyone performing age verification under the chapter, including a third party hired to do it. Identifying information may not be kept, sold, leased, or otherwise shared unless a law or court order requires it. Security methods must be reasonable given the person's business scope.

The attorney general must enforce the chapter, seek court orders to stop violations, and bring cases against people thought to be violating it. These enforcement rules apply to violations of the age-verification chapter. Each access to a noncompliant site or app is a separate violation. The civil penalty is up to $1,000 per violation, with no more than $10,000 in penalties for one person in a single day.