Another day, another weird story pops up… This time, that story comes from Louisiana, where the new law makes porn sites liable for content deemed “harmful to minors” if it doesn’t install age verification technology. for anyone accessing them in Louisiana-and, it’s already affecting how people in the state access Pornhub.
Originally signed by Louisiana’s Democratic governor John Bel Edwards in June, the law which passed as Act 440, became effective on January 1, 2023. Here’s what it states:
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 to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material.
According to the act, the material that is “harmful to minors” is defined as appealing to prurient interests and that consists of “pubic hair, anus, vulva, genitals, or nipple of the female breast; Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses, or genitals; Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation; flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act,” and lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” for someone under 18 years of age.
Furthermore, it states that any commercial entity in violation will be liable “to an individual for damages resulting from a minor’s accessing the material.”
As a result, users visiting Pornhub from a Louisiana-based IP address will be redirected to the page requiring identity verification before entering.
“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 page says.
To make this possible, Pornhub utilizes AllPassTrust, a third-party identity verification site that connects to LAWallet, which is a digital driver’s license for Louisianans. Pornhub guarantees not to connect data during this process.
Chances are other major adult sites such as XVideos and XHamster, if they still haven’t implemented the same/similar verification, will shortly follow suit.
In case you wonder, the law was introduced by Representative Laurie Schegel, who also works as a counselor who sees patients for “sex addiction” treatment.
“Pornography is destroying our children and they’re getting unlimited access to it on the internet and so if the pornography companies aren’t going to be responsible, I thought we need to go ahead and hold them accountable,” Schlegel told WAFB.
Back to online age verification… Similar proposals have been made in Australia, as well as in the UK, where the Online Safety Bill has been debated, modified, killed, and revived since 2021.
On their end, sex workers have denounced this and similar attempts at over-broad age verification, calling them harmful to their livelihoods and attacking the industry as a whole.