Law / United States / 
South Carolina
H.3424 (2024), Child Online Safety Act
S.C. Code Ann. section 37-1-310
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to a commercial entity that knowingly publishes material on a website more than one third of which is material harmful to minors.
- Perform reasonable age verification of South Carolina visitors to confirm they are 18 or older, using a digitized identification card, a third party verification service, or a commercially reasonable method relying on transactional data.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Statutory damages
The statute states no fixed or liquidated damages figure. A commercial entity found to have violated the age-verification duty is liable to the minor for nominal damages, actual damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees, and for punitive damages where the general standard for punitive damages is met. Individual claims meeting ordinary joinder or class-action standards may be combined in a single action.
- As of
- Class action available
- Yes
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
South Carolina Attorney General, limited to injunctive and other equitable relief; no monetary civil penalty is available to the Attorney General under this section. Private civil action for damages, court costs, and attorney fees.
Settledness
The Supreme Court of the United States upheld Texas's age verification law for websites that publish material harmful to minors under intermediate scrutiny in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, No. 23-1122 (U.S. ); that decision construed the Texas statute, not this one.
- As of
- Open questions
- Is the 'substantial portion' threshold of Section 37-1-310(A)(13), more than thirty-three and one-third percent of the total material on a website, measured by the number of items, pages, bytes or running time, and across a whole website or each part of it?
- Which methods other than a digitized identification card or an independent third-party service count as a 'commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data' under Section 37-1-310(A)(12)(c)?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Commercial websites where a substantial portion of content is material harmful to minors.
Obligation class
Age verification, Retention
Verification methods
Digital ID, Third party service, Transactional data
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- "Substantial portion" means more than thirty-three and one-third percent of total material on a website, which meets the definition of "material harmful to minors" as defined in this section.
What it makes you log
Log retention
- As of
- Basis
- Purpose bound
- Prohibits retaining
- Identifying information of the individual whose age was verified, which neither the commercial entity nor a third party may retain after access has been granted to the material
Logging duty
Section 37-1-310(C)(1) makes a commercial entity liable if it fails to perform reasonable age verification, and (C)(5) is a safe harbor for one that uses a reasonable method; neither names a log, a record of the check, a retention period or regulator access to a record. Subsection (C)(6) forbids keeping identifying information once access is granted. Enforcement is a private suit or an Attorney General injunction (D), with no inspection or production power. The section names no territorial hook.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Requires a commercial entity that knowingly publishes material on a website, more than one third of which is material harmful to minors, to perform reasonable age verification of South Carolina visitors using a digitized identification card, a third party verification service, or a commercially reasonable method relying on transactional data.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
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