West Virginia

Subnational jurisdiction · as of 2026-07-15

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.

Instruments on record

HB 4412 (2026), Child Online Protection and Liability Act

In force

W. Va. Code §§ 49A-1-101 to 49A-1-106

Effective 2026-06-12 · Applies to private

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.

Age threshold	18
Verification methods	gov id, digital id, transactional data
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 suits	yes

Source: W. Va. Code §§ 49A-1-101 to 49A-1-106