The legislation requires online publishers of porn sites to require age verification, via an LA Wallet program called VerifyYou Pro, Anonymous edition, that users are over 18.
By February, Schlegel had introduced the legislation in the lower chamber. HB-142 sailed through the Louisiana House (96–1) and State Senate (34–0) in June 2022. And when the law went into effect this past January, Pornhub, the world’s largest porn site, lost 80 percent of its traffic in Louisiana.
Soon after, two dozen states proposed copycat policies; Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, Utah, Virginia, and Texas have now all passed similar legislation. This summer, Pornhub chose to pull out of Mississippi, Utah, and Virginia entirely rather than comply with the new age verification requirements.
Visitors in those states are now greeted with a video of a fully clothed Cherie DeVille, star of the films MILFs Like It Big and Slut Inspection, urging users who support internet freedoms to contact their state representatives. Pornhub further cited in a July 2023 statement that the laws “jeopardize user safety and privacy” and encouraged “all members of our community to stand up for your freedom to enjoy and consume porn privately.”
[I find it remarkable that some libertarian-minded people find this more of a free-speech concern than the Big Brother Gov’t/Tech censorship regime. An age screen for online porn seems not just constitutional but downright common sense.If Pornhub chooses not to do business in states that require age verification, that reflects more on them and their motives than it does on the laws that attempt to restrict that material to adults. One might even suspect that Pornhub *wants* children to access the site so as to generate the next wave of consumers. — Ed]
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