A new Louisiana state law is putting teeth into the 18-and-up requirement for pornographic sites. As of the new year starting Sunday, users trying to access such sites in the state will have to verify their age with a state-issued ID.
Producers and distributors of the prurient material will be held legally liable by the state if age verification standards are not met, and the sites are forbidden from keeping ID information from users once they have verified their age.
“Any commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods,” the law reads.
The “substantial portion” established by Louisiana House Bill 142, also known as Act 440, is a 33.3% threshold; websites, where the content is 33.3% or more pornographic material, are subject to the verification requirements.
State Rep. Laurie Schlegel, a Republican, introduced the bill. She argues the bill will keep children safer by impeding their access to adult content.
“We require brick and mortar businesses to check ID before providing anyone access to this type of material, but somehow we’ve given the internet a free pass. … Research has shown that kids as young as 6 are now seeing pornography and that 1 in 10 visitors of porn sites are now under 10 years old. This is not acceptable,” Ms. Schlegel told Fox News.
Websites can verify ID with the help of the LA Wallet app, which provides a digitized version of a person’s driver’s license.
“It doesn’t identify your date of birth, it doesn’t identify who you are, where you live, what part of the state you’re in, or any information from your device or from your actual ID. It just returns that age to say that yes, this person is old enough to be allowed to go in,” Sara Kelley, a project manager for LA Wallet developer Envoc, told WAFB-TV, a Baton Rouge CBS affiliate.
Some sites have quickly adapted, including the MindGeek website network that includes Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube.
“Louisiana law now requires us to put in place a process for verifying the age of users who connect to our site from Louisiana. The privacy and security of the Pornhub community is our priority, and we thank you for your cooperation,” the site prompt reads, according to technology website Ars Technica.
Federal lawmakers could choose to follow Louisiana’s lead.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, proposed the Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act to Congress in December. The law would require the Federal Communications Commission to enforce age verification on porn sites accessed nationwide.
“Every day, we’re learning more about the negative psychological effects pornography has on minors. Given the alarming rate of teenage exposure to pornography, I believe the government must act quickly to enact protections that have a real chance of surviving First Amendment scrutiny,” Mr. Lee told Fox News.
Adult industry advocates contend instead that preexisting device-based protection for children prevents their exposure to pornographic content.
“We should all work to prevent access to adult content by minors, but the simple, free filters available on most devices would accomplish the same thing,” Mike Stabile with adult industry advocacy group the Free Speech Coalition told the BBC.
Privacy advocates have also decried the bill, arguing it doesn’t have enough of a solid guarantee to protect data.
“Age verification systems like those required by the Louisiana law force users to hand private data over to a third party simply to use a website. There’s no guarantee that this data won’t be retained,” Jason Kelley of the digital civil liberties advocacy organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation told the BBC.
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