BATON ROUGE — People in Louisiana who wish to visit adult websites are now required to enter their government ID, following the implementation of a controversial new state law promoted by a religious activist and Republican legislator, which came into effect Sunday.
Several Louisiana residents reported today on Twitter that their attempts to freely browse Pornhub are now thwarted by a screen demanding they enter their driver license information or an alternate form of state ID.
“Please verify your age to access Pornhub,” a banner requests, explaining that “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,” the message continues, “and we thank you for your cooperation.”
XBIZ has received reports from adult Louisiana residents who have tried to use the state's LA Wallet software to verify their date of birth and have been unsuccessful, describing it as "buggy."
The unusual demand to provide government “papers” to access sexual content online, a first in the United States, is the direct result of Louisiana’s HB 142, which was sponsored by anti-porn activist, faith-based therapist and local politician Laurie Schlegel (R-Matairie).
As XBIZ reported, Schlegel spent the last week of 2022 promoting the new law with Louisiana media, which reported the law requires “age verification for any website that contains 33.3% or more pornographic material.”
Schlegel has not indicated how such calculations will be made, by whom, or even what constitutes “pornographic material.”
Pornography, Schlegel declared to WAFB9 TV’s Chris Rosato, “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.”
Legal Expert: Industry Should Make Compliance a Priority
Industry attorney Corey Silverstein, of MyAdultAttorney.com and Adult.law., told XBIZ that he is "not surprised to hear that Pornhub and other adult websites are attempting to adhere to Louisiana’s HB 142. It is the responsible thing to do."
According to Silverstein, since the law was signed by Louisiana Governor Jon Bel Edwards (D) in June 22, he has been "encouraging all adult entertainment businesses to meet with their attorneys to discuss their business models and get an understanding of both whether HB 142 applies to them and if so, what measures needed to be put in place before the law became effective. Make no mistake about it, this law is now in full force and effect and adult entertainment businesses not familiar with the law should treat HB 142 as a priority."
However, Silverstein also noted that in his opinion the Louisiana age verification law “is unconstitutional and at minimum violates the First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment and the Dormant Commerce Clause. Unfortunately, due to the law having civil remedies vs. criminal penalties, a constitutional challenge will have to wait until someone attempts to sue an adult entertainment provider under the law — this was intentional on the drafters part, as the last time Louisiana attempted to play this dangerous game of speech suppression, HB 153, was ultimately and correctly killed in Federal Court.”