A bill has been proposed in Texas, which if passed would make it the first US state to legally require online retailers to verify customers’ ages when selling them some sex toys and sextech products online.
Senate Bill 3003 was filed on March 14, 2025 by Republican Senator Angela Paxton and if passed will go into effect on September 1. It’s designed to ensure that anyone buying an “obscene device” in Texas online is aged 18 or over, but the bill will raise concerns about personal freedoms and the categorization of sextech devices.
If the bill is passed, online retailers would need to use an age verification method such as submission of government ID, a third-party age verification system, or payment systems exclusively for adults, before selling them a product legally categorized as an “obscene device”.
Texas’ penal code defines an “obscene device” as “a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” It’s likely that this definition would include most vibrators and penis stroker devices.
Retailers breaking the new rules would face fines of up to $4,000 and prison terms of up to one year. They could also face further financial penalties of up to $5,000 for each bill violation, aka potentially for each “obscene device” sold without age verification being implemented.
Senate Bill 3003 will likely face legal challenges based on personal and retailer freedoms, as well as issues related to privacy and personal data. The idea that retailers could potentially be viewing the government IDs of individuals buying sextech products related to specific lifestyles or sexualities could raise the heckles of anyone concerned about personal privacy and safety.
Attempts by lawmakers to crack down on sex toys and sextech devices, as well as porn in general, are becoming more frequent in Texas. In late 2024, Republican state representative Hillary Hickland proposed a bill that would ban the sale of sex toys in Texas business establishments not legally considered to be “sexually orientated”.
Texas is one of many US states to have introduced tougher age verification rules for accessing online porn. Aylo, the company that owns many of the world’s biggest porn sites including Pornhub, has blocked access to its porn sites in multiple states to avoid falling foul of the laws.
In 2024 Chaturbate, one of the world’s biggest live porn camming sites, reached a $675,000 legal settlement with the state of Texas, over the site’s alleged lack of compliance with the state’s online pornography age verification rules.
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