Overview

• Six Republican representatives led by Josh Schriver introduced House Bill 4938 on Sept. 11 and sent it to the Judiciary Committee.
• The proposal would outlaw all online adult content, explicitly including ASMR, manga, AI‑generated material, and depictions or descriptions of transgender people, and it would apply to all ages.
• The bill targets circumvention tools by banning the sale and promotion of VPNs, proxies, and encrypted tunneling methods, and it directs ISPs to monitor and block such tools and prohibited sites.
• Reported penalties vary, with Tom's Guide citing fines up to $500,000 per violation for entities that facilitate access, while Hindustan Times reports fines as large as $50,000 for ISPs that fail to block VPNs.
• Privacy and digital‑rights advocates warn the measure threatens online security and free expression and mirrors controls seen in authoritarian countries, and the Michigan ACLU has not commented.