Louisiana Now Requires Driver's License Verification To Fire Up Pornhub
People hoping to hop on Pornhub in Louisiana better have their driver's license ready.
A new law is now in effect in Louisiana that requires age verification for any site that is at least 33.3% porn, according to TechCrunch.
That means the major adult content websites like Pornhub aren't accessible to anyone unable to verify they're an adult. Below is a video of what users experience when attempting to gain access to Pornhub, which is viewed as the adult entertainment industry leader.
TechCrunch reported the age verification system "cannot retain identifying information." However, sex worker, professor, and research fellow at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (what an incredible title) Olivia Snow believes there could still be issues with data breaches.
The legislation that is now the law of the land reads in part:
Due to advances in technology, the universal availability of the internet, and limited age verification requirements, minors are exposed to pornography earlier in age. Pornography contributes to the hyper sexualization of teens and prepubescent children and may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior. Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.
Interestingly, the law does allow for porn to be consumed without age verification if it's "bona fide news" or a "public interest broadcast." It's unclear what might exactly fall under that banner.
In reaction to the law, I reached out to famous adult film actress Brandi Love for her thoughts, and she thinks it's a mixed bag.
"I’ve always believed & advocated for placing all adult content behind a paywall. That’s how you protect & age verify. That’s what OnlyFans does. And I hope it’s what Twitter does," Love told me Thursday morning.
However, she worries the law now in effect is misguided, and added, "This Louisiana law doesn’t really care about protecting. It cares about penalizing porn companies. And if everyone starts surfing behind a VPN the law will become useless overnight."
This porn/Pornhub law has an interesting feature.
The age verification part of the law aside, the 33.3% threshold is very interesting to me and I'm sure the readers agree.
How the hell is that determined? Better yet, who is determining it? Is there an appeals process? To me, that's by far the most fascinating part about all of this.
Furthermore, are there sites that only dabble in hard core pornography? Are there websites that have hard core porn, but it's not the majority of the business?
As far as I know, porn is an all-or-nothing business. It's not really something you can just barely dabble in.
I've reached out to Pornhub and friends in the industry for their reactions. We will make sure to update you all as statements roll in. In the meantime, fire away with your thoughts in the comments.