Wisconsin Governor Vetoes Age Verification Bill, Citing Privacy Risks from Biometric and ID Submission

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed Assembly Bill 105 on April 3, 2026, blocking legislation that would have required websites where more than one-third of content qualifies as harmful to minors to implement age verification before granting user access.

AB 105 would have permitted a range of verification methods, including uploading a government-issued ID, submitting to a biometric facial scan, providing credit card information, or combinations of these methods. The bill passed the Wisconsin Senate by voice vote and cleared the Assembly with three-quarters support, including 18 Democratic votes.

In his veto message, Evers cited three objections: privacy intrusion on adults seeking access to constitutionally protected material; the absence of data-sharing restrictions that would prevent companies from transmitting collected personal information to third parties, government agencies, or data brokers; and security vulnerabilities that could expose personally identifiable information to interception for blackmail or identity theft. “I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to this bill’s intrusion into the personal privacy of Wisconsin residents,” Evers wrote.

Evers proposed device-based age verification as a more privacy-protective alternative, a model under which verification occurs on a user’s own device without submitting biometric or documentary data to third-party platforms.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton affirmed states’ authority to require age verification. Democratic governors in Arizona and Kentucky have signed similar legislation. National polling shows 70 to 80 percent public support for such laws. Wisconsin now remains among the handful of states without a statutory age verification requirement for adult content.

Daniel Degner, President of Wisconsin Family Action, criticized the veto. “It is shameful that the Governor of Wisconsin is choosing to parrot talking points from porn companies,” Degner said.

AB 105 was introduced in the 2025-2026 legislative session. Governor Evers’ suggestion of device-based verification aligns with privacy-preserving age assurance approaches being piloted in the EU and UK, which allow age confirmation without transmitting identity documents or biometric data to third-party platforms. The veto adds a new divergence to the uneven landscape of U.S. state age verification legislation, where states continue to adopt markedly different approaches to compliance mechanisms and acceptable verification technologies.

Sources: 404 Media, WisPolitics

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team