The Senate Commerce Committee approved the SCREEN Act 15 to 13 on Wednesday 5 August, a party line roll call, and then could not report it out. Not enough members were physically present. The committee’s own record of the session says a revote “will be needed to comport with Senate rules on in-person attendance.” S. 737 would make site based age verification a federal requirement for the first time.
The version approved was not the bill as introduced. Senators voted on S. 737 “as amended by the Curtis substitute, as modified,” and that substitute text was not public at the time of writing, so the provisions below track the introduced text.
The mandate is the part being covered elsewhere. Section 4 gives covered platforms one year from enactment to adopt technology verification measures, and it explicitly rules out self certification: asking a user to confirm they are not a minor “shall not be sufficient.” Verification must extend to IP addresses, “including known virtual proxy network IP addresses,” unless the platform determines the user is outside the United States. The Federal Trade Commission enforces, and a section 4 violation is treated as a violation of an FTC Act rule on unfair or deceptive practices.
The compliance clock starts at enactment, not at passage
Covered platforms must have technology verification measures running one year after the date of enactment. S. 737, section 4(a).
The scope test is the underwriting problem
The definition of a covered platform never says “adult site.” It captures any interactive computer service where it is “in the regular course of the trade or business” to create, host or make available content harmful to minors “with the objective of earning a profit.” It then closes the two exits a general platform would reach for. An entity is covered regardless of whether it actually earns a profit on that activity, and regardless of whether that content is “the sole source of income or principal business.”
That is a wider net than the state laws. A creator platform, a dating app carrying user media, a marketplace or an AI companion service does not escape by arguing adult content is a side stream. And because the test also reaches any entity that “purposefully avails itself of the United States market,” EU and UK merchants selling into the US sit inside it.
At a glance
- Bill
- S. 737, SCREEN Act (119th Congress)
- Sponsor
- Sen. Mike Lee, introduced 26 Feb 2025
- Committee vote
- 15 to 13, party line, 5 Aug 2026
- Status
- Approved but not reported out. Revote required
- Compliance clock
- 1 year from enactment
- Enforcer
- Federal Trade Commission
- Scope test
- Regular course of business, profit objective, primary business not required
For acquirers this turns age assurance from a vertical question into a portfolio question. Underwriting files that ask whether this is an adult merchant will have to start asking whether the merchant monetises user generated content at all, and what its moderation stack actually looks like. Nothing is law yet. The committee still has to hold its revote, the full Senate has not voted, and the SCREEN Act has now been introduced in three consecutive Congresses without reaching the floor. The stumble buys time rather than a reprieve. The majority that voted yes on Wednesday has not changed its mind, and the one year clock starts at enactment.
- US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, “Commerce Committee Advances Kids Online Safety Legislation,” vote record and chairman’s remarks, 5 August 2026.
- US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, “Executive Session 24,” markup notice, 5 August 2026.
- US Government Publishing Office, “S. 737, Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act,” bill text as introduced, 26 February 2025.
- XBIZ, “SCREEN Act Stalls in Senate Committee Over Technicality,” news report, 5 August 2026.