Colorado will soon require apps and online services to verify users’ approximate age under a new law Gov. Jared Polis signed Thursday, creating a statewide framework that sponsors said would shield minors from inappropriate content while limiting how companies can share age‑related data.

Senate Bill 051 — sponsored by Sens. Matt Ball, D‑Denver, and Larry Liston, R‑Colorado Springs, and Reps. Amy Paschal, D‑Colorado Springs, and Naquetta Ricks, D‑Aurora — will require websites, apps, and other online services to ask users for their age or age range and transmit that information to the device’s app store.

The bill also requires operators to send only the minimum necessary information about users to third parties and prohibits sharing age signals for other purposes not covered by the new policy.

Additionally, the measure imposes penalties on developers who have “clear and convincing” evidence that a user is lying about their age but still acts as if it is their actual age.

While some states require users to disclose their exact age and other personally identifying information, SB 051 allows operators to send an “age bracket” (a range of ages) to applications.

Colorado’s new policy was modeled after California’s Assembly Bill 1043, which goes into effect next year, according to Ball.

Senate Bill 051 passed on a 28-7 vote, with four Democrats and three Republicans voting against it. In the House, the bill passed 40-23, with all Republicans and three Democrats voting against it.

“In an era where children are given phone access at a young age, it is crucial that we strengthen online protections to keep children safe,” said Paschal. “We have protections in place to prevent targeted advertising and profiling of minors online, but without accurate age attestation, it is difficult to deploy these protections.”

Opponents, meanwhile, warned that the bill raises privacy concerns and could give families a false sense of safety, noting that its age‑attestation rules are easy to bypass.

Vanessa Rutledge of the Independence Institute argued in Complete Colorado that many age‑verification bills effectively try to shift parents’ responsibilities onto the state — a tradeoff that, she said, lawmakers should acknowledge.

No government mandate can replace active parenting, she wrote, and a universal, one‑size‑fits‑all identification system for every adult user is not the same as targeted parental oversight.

If protecting minors online requires either universal ID checks or direct parental involvement, Rutledge said, policymakers should be upfront about that choice. Expanding state control over digital identity infrastructure, she added, is no substitute for engaged parents or responsible platforms.