Louisiana Begins Requiring Government ID to Access Online Porn

[Hydrogen]

In New Orleans, you can drink alcohol openly in the streets. You can even throw your own parade. But to access porn on the internet, you now need to present proof of government-issued ID, as a new law goes into effect.

Louisiana state House Bill 142 requires adult sites to screen visitors via “reasonable age verification,” or face possible legal consequences. And the law, signed all the way back in June and effective as of January 1, 2023, defines “reasonable age verification” rather narrowly. Gone are the days of the “agree that you’re 18+ box,” or the “input your birth year” drop down menu in the Bayou State.

Instead, under the law, porn publishing websites can either demand that users present a digitized ID card based on a form of government ID, or simply show their government-issued ID. A vague, third option also allows companies to use “any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of the person.” So, in theory, porn sites (or third-party services) could mine users’ credit card, insurance, employment, bank, or other financial information to find verifiable proof of age— which some already do. But for the most part, adult sites will probably stick to driver’s licenses.

Louisiana allows digital driver’s licenses through the state’s LA Wallet initiative and app. It’s via that LA Wallet system that popular porn sites like Pornhub, Youporn, and Redtube appear to be newly verifying user ages. At Allpasstrust.com, users can connect their LA Wallet to accounts on all three platforms. And a link on the adult sites directs to that same page, as demonstrated in this tweet from a Louisiana-based lawyer.

Gizmodo reached out to Pornhub, Youporn, and Redtube with questions about the new policy, and did not immediately receive a response. It’s currently unclear if or how those without Louisiana drivers licenses can readily access online pornography in the state.

A platform is considered a porn publisher and subject to the new restrictions if at least one-third of the content on its website meets the bill’s extensive definition of “material harmful to minors,” which lists specific types of sexual or vulgar acts, including “fondling of...anuses,” and “excretory functions.” If sites fail to comply with the new ID-requirements, the company could be held liable for distributing harmful material to minors and face fines.

The logic behind the legislation is that porn is corrupting the youth. “Pornography is creating a public health crisis and having a corroding influence on minors,” the bill text reads. And, though some research suggests that early exposure to pornography can have negative mental health impacts on children and teens, past attempts to censor minors’ access to adult content online have notably failed. Internet savvy young people have a multitude of ways to get around content filters and parental blocks. Louisiana’s latest effort will likely be no different. After all, a simple VPN can bypass the new age verification restrictions.

However, officially identifying oneself to view pornography could have serious consequences for adults, should there be a security breach. HB142 decrees that the companies or third-parties performing the age verification “shall not retain any identifying information...after access has been granted.” Pornhub states on its website that it doesn’t collect any data during the process, and “your proof of age does not allow anyone to trace your online activity.” Yet it’s hard to imagine a foolproof system that both verifies someone’s exact age and somehow doesn’t lead to increased privacy risk.

State-run systems are frequently vulnerable to digital attacks. And third-party systems like password managers and login verification services have recently been targets of some major hacks.

Nonetheless, Louisiana isn’t the only place to introduce official age verification requirements for adult content on the internet. France’s parliament passed similar legislation in 2020. And back in 2019, another age verification law was proposed in the United Kingdom (but ultimately scrapped amid privacy concerns.)

In the U.S., Utah’s Republican Senator Mike Lee introduced the federally-focused SCREEN Act last month, which would require age verification for online adult content nationwide if passed, along with another bill intended to diminish porn’s First Amendment protections.



https://news.yahoo.com/louisiana-begins-requiring-government-id-201000430.html

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Major porn crackdowns otw in the USA. While this applies to sites like pornhub, youporn and redtube. Not certain if their definition of porn will apply to sites like onlyfans which mix adult content with platonic and non nude media:

A platform is considered a porn publisher and subject to the new restrictions if at least one-third of the content on its website meets the bill’s extensive definition of “material harmful to minors,” which lists specific types of sexual or vulgar acts

If porn is eventually regulated out of existence. What would be the secondary fallback option for adult entertainers who rely on income from US markets? Many already have alternate revenue streams tied to platforms like youtube and twitchtv. Perhaps more of them would leave porn and become involved in crypto.

My personal preference is seeing people receive a greater number of options and opportunities over time. Rather than being denied options and opportunities. Doors being opened for people. Rather than doors being shut.

Could there eventually be more of a backlash in response to these heavy handed, authoritarian, measures? While there have been many who made solid cases for issues like the deficit being worthy of concern, many years ago. It seems no one took those warning signs seriously. Until after they were hit with heavy handed measures, which forced them to make a closer inspection of current events.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Excretory acts aren't vulgar--I don't know what Louisiana legislators are thinking!  Perhaps they consider themselves above the common man who pisses and shits, but my god we're all mammals here.

I bet you some senator or congressman caught his kid in the midst of a porn addiction and felt like a bit of moral grandstanding.  Usually laws like this are made in response to an incident, whether it made headlines or not.  Just ask Kenneth Pinyon....oh wait, he got sexed to death by a fine-looking equine.  Well, you could ask the rest of his posse who are no doubt still into that sort of thing.

On a serious note, this law is ominous if it's a precedent for other states to follow.  KYC measures just for jerk-off material?  Give me a break, lawmakers.

[Plaguedeath]

On a serious note, this law is ominous if it's a precedent for other states to follow.  KYC measures just for jerk-off material?  Give me a break, lawmakers.

Not to mention a minor can submit fake KYC, if the government know it's fake, he can just bought another cell phone in order get arrested. Also, a minor can borrow his parents cellphone to download the online porn video and then transfer it to his cellphone, the another easy thing is, he can just buy the porn video from someone

There's many way for the minor to access the porn site without ID. Although the government ask KYC to able control an account that search for a prohibited porn video (e.g. underage porn), but as I stated previously it's so easy to abuse it.

[Sithara007]

In the US, largest share of subscription fees for online porn platforms comes from deep-red states such as Utah and Nebraska. The reason is that these guys are a bunch of hypocrites. In India, some of the stupid lawmakers had this fabulous idea of banning online porn. The same people who were behind the idea were caught watching online porn using their mobile phone inside the parliament. Even now, porn is banned in India, but it is available everywhere. Instead of watching in porn sites such as YouPorn and Spankbang, Indians have resorted to watching the videos using various telegram channels.

[avikz]

In the US, largest share of subscription fees for online porn platforms comes from deep-red states such as Utah and Nebraska. The reason is that these guys are a bunch of hypocrites. In India, some of the stupid lawmakers had this fabulous idea of banning online porn. The same people who were behind the idea were caught watching online porn using their mobile phone inside the parliament. Even now, porn is banned in India, but it is available everywhere. Instead of watching in porn sites such as YouPorn and Spankbang, Indians have resorted to watching the videos using various telegram channels.

Indian lawmakers are stupid! They have banned porn websites but don't have the technical intelligence to understand that these websites can be easily accessible via a free VPN. So no impact on people really!

Lawmakers need to understand sex is a biological process. It comes naturally! If it wasn't natural, India wouldn't have 1.4 billion population. Seems like some US lawmakers are showing similar type of intelligence as of Indian lawmakers.

[adaseb]

Pretty sure what those porn sites will do is just prevent access from those states. A site like Pornhub makes most of its revenue from the ads that it has displayed. Not everybody paying for a premium membership. It will be too much work and too much privacy focused that they will just block IP addresses from that state.

I think there are many other ways to go about this. One way is just by using your credit card and paying $0.01 to prove you are an adult since kids can't hold credit cards. If a kid can borrows dads credit card, they can also borrow their drivers license and doesn't really accomplish anything.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

KYC measures just for jerk-off material?  Give me a break, lawmakers.

I don't see it as bad, because we have a generation of kids who start watching porn as young as 10 years old or younger. How would you try to prevent them from watching porn at such a young age? Or don't you care?

[Moneyprism]

In the US, largest share of subscription fees for online porn platforms comes from deep-red states such as Utah and Nebraska. The reason is that these guys are a bunch of hypocrites. In India, some of the stupid lawmakers had this fabulous idea of banning online porn. The same people who were behind the idea were caught watching online porn using their mobile phone inside the parliament. Even now, porn is banned in India, but it is available everywhere. Instead of watching in porn sites such as YouPorn and Spankbang, Indians have resorted to watching the videos using various telegram channels.

it's very funny to see these legislators making regulations prohibiting pornography even though they themselves consume pornographic content and enjoy it .. even in many cases the customers of sex workers are also quite a lot from officials (legislature) .. they are like a bunch of hypocrites and instead of dealing with these things they should be dealing with more crucial matters

[bittraffic]

KYC measures just for jerk-off material?  Give me a break, lawmakers.

I don't see it as bad, because we have a generation of kids who start watching porn as young as 10 years old or younger. How would you try to prevent them from watching porn at such a young age? Or don't you care?

It's the parent's responsibility really. But hard to prevent them when there are playboy and hustler magazines still but at least this will not require them to submit government IDs. A lawmaker's ID landed in the database of a porn site, it will be a lot worse for the lawmaker lol.

But then anyway, regardless of this law, kids will always find a way. They could be going to free porn channels instead where there is no monitoring they can do. Telegram channels have tons of porn.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

But then anyway, regardless of this law, kids will always find a way. They could be going to free porn channels instead where there is no monitoring they can do. Telegram channels have tons of porn.

They can find a way, but do you know of many children who gamble on fiat sites nowadays? They can find a way to gamble on fiat sites but the percentage who do so is minimal.

With such laws, the percentage of 10-year-old boys, and girls, watching violent ganbangs at the click of a button would be greatly reduced.

[Argoo]

It's no secret that porn sites are very popular all over the world and by almost all categories of people. Certain measures should be taken to restrict access to minors, however, to require for viewing porn to provide documents proving the identity and age of citizens, in my opinion, is a bad idea. This will enable the owners of porn sites to blackmail individuals who would not want information about it to become known to their wives or entourage. Therefore, it is in order to increase the level of anonymity and privacy that some porn sites take money from their regular customers in cryptocurrency, and even in some cases in anonymity coins such as Monero.

[dansus021]

Wow watching porn now need KYC hahah  anyway I'm just curious is the government have tax on porn sites like this?

[TalkativeCoin]

Wonder if pages like OF would undergo the same procedure when subscribing to a porn-like content creator.

[cmg777]

Its kind of pointless to enact this law. Maybe if the state of Louisiana had full control of the internet would it have the capability to pull off what they desired in this law. As others have said there are free and paid VPNs that could work around this legislative measure. The law will lead to ease of cyber criminals to obtain IDs for identity theft crimes and for illegal immigrants to pose as real citizens. Its laws like this that prove we are constantly socially experimented upon by our elite class. I'm sick and tired of it I'm not a lab rat.  

[el kaka22]

Speaking of cryptos with low network fees, they can be Tron, LTC, Doge and XRP. I think there are no small gamblers who use BTC, I mean if they will only deposit one dollar because they also know that they can only pay more which doesn't look alright anymore but if it was done for testing purposes then it should be fine. Majority of the sites don't focus on payment methods. For them they think having BTC and ETH as their main coin is already fine.

Well, if you are a whale gambler you will likely use these two coins than the smaller ones and they have different preferences such as if the site provides anonymity and then if they have better bonuses or VIP treatments.

[coolcoinz]

Wow watching porn now need KYC hahah  anyway I'm just curious is the government have tax on porn sites like this?

KYC, just as CBDCs ultimately lead to taxation. That's the goal, if you didn't know.
I don't know about the US, but in the EU you pay more tax for your car the more cubic capacity it has, so they need to know that. The also ask you for the same thing if you're trying to import a car. Apart from the brand and year they need capacity to know how to tax you on the import because for some reason it doesn't matter how big the car is, but how big the inside of a cylinder is.

If they're asking you for your data to watch porn you can bet your dick (or vag) they're gathering data on what you watch and how often. Next thing, 10 years from now, you don't get allowed to work with children because your employer can access that data and people who watch porn more than x times a month are considered unfit. At the same time the porn site gets shut down because some state voted not to allow its citizens to watch porn at all and their citizens were found registered on the site, so the site should've filtered them and broke the law.

What a clown world we're living in.

[Hispo]

I did not expect this, to be honest.
Am I the only one who is worried that some rogue employee of any of those webpages could secretly save those KYC for extortion purposes?. I know it sounds rather paranoid, but it could happen.

Also, I am not sure if access to pornography could be classified as a problem of public health or something similar. I mean, I agree children should not access to it, but it reads like an overstatement, as if some politicians were blaming that kind of material of many of the obstacles western society is going through nowadays.

[paxmao]

I am not surprised - the Bible Belt is strong on this one. Now it comes to deciding what is porn and what is not porn, so there should be something similar to offcial censoship in the state. However, this measure is as restrictive as it is futile at porn is widely accessible in the internet an there is nothing preventing anyone from using a VPN if it comes to it. I see the ID requirement much more applicable to live shows.

[add1ct3dd]

Porn industry requires a lot more advocates that's for sure. It has been one of the biggest industries in the entire world and we have seen that even though there are free porn available all around the world, people still spend insane amount of money on porn as well, no idea why they do that but they still do it and that's a big income for many porn companies. Yet, when it comes to having some sort of lobby where you could promote porn being healthy, there are no organizations for it.

It's the most healthy thing anyone could ever do, instead of trying to supress the fantasies within you, or even worse try to turn that into reality without others consent, you could just watch it on tv and enjoy yourself and would not cause any trouble to the world.

Plus, it also releases serotonin, which means happiness hormone, and reduces stress and on males it is good for your prostate and prevents prostate cancer as well. Why would this be anything immoral or bad, it should be promoted as a good thing instead of bad.

[Ultegra134]

In the US, largest share of subscription fees for online porn platforms comes from deep-red states such as Utah and Nebraska. The reason is that these guys are a bunch of hypocrites. In India, some of the stupid lawmakers had this fabulous idea of banning online porn. The same people who were behind the idea were caught watching online porn using their mobile phone inside the parliament. Even now, porn is banned in India, but it is available everywhere. Instead of watching in porn sites such as YouPorn and Spankbang, Indians have resorted to watching the videos using various telegram channels.

Indian lawmakers are stupid! They have banned porn websites but don't have the technical intelligence to understand that these websites can be easily accessible via a free VPN. So no impact on people really!

Lawmakers need to understand sex is a biological process. It comes naturally! If it wasn't natural, India wouldn't have 1.4 billion population. Seems like some US lawmakers are showing similar type of intelligence as of Indian lawmakers.

Sex is indeed a biological process; porn, though, isn't. It provides unrealistic standards, creating a false image of what sex is about, and can become extremely addictive, with the possibility of suffering from unpleasant side effects. In your case (India), their attempt was useless as it could be bypassed by a VPN browser extension; some browsers even have one integrated (Opera).

The same thing can also be applied in Louisiana's case. People will always find loopholes when they're prohibited from doing something. Furthermore, even if we assume that all websites have been restricted, there are plenty of alternatives that will work regardless. There's no need to go into detail; you get my point.