With the start of the new year, a host of laws went into effect around the country, including ACT 440 in Louisiana. According to an article in CNET, the law will require Louisiana residents who wish to visit porn sites to verify their age through a state ID program called LA Wallet. A person’s digital ID or driver’s license can be used.
PornHub was the only site mentioned in the piece that is using the system. The law applies to any site where at least 33.3% of the content is pornographic as defined by state law. That can include Twitter, which says more about the platform than the law. According to a report from TV station WAFB, Sara Kelley, a project manager with LA Wallet developer Envoc, said the system does not identify the person or location. It simply verifies the age of the user before granting access. The bill was authored by Republican Sen. Laurie Schlegel, who told KPLC:
Someone can sue on behalf of their child. They can sue if children are getting access to pornography. So, it would be up to the user to sue the company for not verifying age first. (Minors) are getting unlimited access to it on the internet. So, if pornography companies aren’t going to be responsible, I thought we would hold them accountable.
During testimony for the bill, Schlegel told her colleagues:
Most of you know that I’m a licensed professional counselor. But some of you may not know that I’m also a certified sex addiction therapist. I specialize in treating people who are struggling with pornography and sex addiction. I can tell you first-hand that unlimited access to pornography on the internet is causing a public health crisis for our children. Peer-reviewed research shows conclusively that pornography is harmful for young people.
The bill passed the Louisiana House 96-1. The dissenter was Democrat Mandie Landry, who said the bill was unconstitutional and unenforceable.
Related: Jill Biden Thinks It’s Un-American To Oppose Porn in School Libraries
While researching the piece, I really didn’t want to type “porn” and “Louisiana” into a search engine, so I just entered the number of the bill. Among the results that came up was a Reddit thread of peoples’ reactions to the law. Most agreed with Landry’s assessment and thought the law was either useless, redundant, or designed to harvest people’s personal information:
Your kid will still have access to porn, it’s everywhere. It will just be less safe if they try to use a VPN to get around it without researching them. They can be pushed to less reputable sites opening your household up to viruses too, or worse, migrating to sites that aren’t as basic whitebread as the mainstream ones and developing strange fetishes. Doubt you want them on 4Chan for example, with all its screwed up stuff.
It’s for the future of taxing the internet. Anything purchased will start being sales-taxed, like online video rental, subscriptions, etc….
Clearly every single website is working in good faith that none of this info will be used for nefarious ways. Can’t wait for the news of the data breech of Louisiana drivers ID’s.
There’s already a law on the books for that, believe it or not.
We really trust this state with that kind of data? I hope they just block the state and wash their hands of the s**t. Like this is honestly what issue Louisiana need solved. Anyone that voted for this lost my vote.
To add, love the republicans and that “small government.”
I think the real issue is that the state is requiring grown a** adults to ask permission before engaging in legal and constitutionally protected activity. There’s an implied threat of “we know who you are and what you’re doing” that’s intended to make people either cut back or stop watching altogether.
Most of the comments were along those lines. And then there was this:
Hopefully it gets shot down as unconstitutional at some point. This kind of thing is the parent’s responsibility. not the state’s.
Raise your f**king kids people. There are ways to block this kind of content without making it everyone else’s problem.
(Response) I would be worried about the opposite, it goes to the current Supreme Court and they use it as an opportunity to make Porn legality into a state by state issue.
(Response) Exactly but I digress “think of the children”. With all disrespect f**k them kids
“F**k them kids.” No comment.
Perhaps one of the most disturbing comments was this:
I hate it. I don’t trust they aren’t keeping our info. My batteries literally died in the time it took me to get to a video yesterday. Talk about angry disappointment. That said I am kinda laughing inside at the idea of my 14yo son having difficulties. Although, my husband isn’t having any trouble accessing content.
Generally, I hate it.
What in the…? And this was from a mom? Okay, so porn has, what, replaced game night at this person’s house? Just throw out Monopoly, Sorry, Uno, and Scrabble. It’s porn night, fam! I really hope that it was a joke or that she was referring to Twitter or some other “tame” site. Otherwise, I see someone from this family making future headlines for all of the wrong reasons.
If anyone is legitimately concerned about their data being harvested or their activity being recorded through LA Wallet, may I ask, how are things back in the 90s? Still good? Somebody, somewhere, has that information already. I used to live just down the road from the NSA. I could see the top of the building from my balcony. It’s a big, grey, hulking thing that looks like it came straight out of a dystopian movie. It’s genuinely intimidating in its appearance alone, and I can just about guarantee that anything that has ever been online or happened online is somewhere in the bowels of that building.
It has been said that a society can be judged on how it treats its very young and very old. It can also be judged on what it values. Sure, maybe the people on the screen are consenting adults who are well-paid and happy to be there. Or they could be minors, or they could have been trafficked or coerced. Or they could be appearing without their permission or even knowledge. I had a cop tell me that he had a case in which a father threatened his daughter with physical violence if she did not appear in his homemade porn. How comfortable, let alone how aroused would viewers be if they knew that? Is this really the free speech hill on which someone wants to die?
I mentioned in another article that when I was a kid, the school would take us to the county library. We had to pass a cluster of adult bookstores to reach our destination. Each store had a sign out front stating that no one under 18 was allowed in. So ID was okay for those stores, but not online. Got it. Bars still card people. You need age verification to buy tobacco products and alcohol. Where I live, the state controls all of the alcohol sales except for things like beer, coolers, hard lemonade, cider, etc. I have to go to the state store and have my ID scanned if I want a bottle of wine or Scotch. So ID is already required for most adult activities. But once it is applied to porn, then it suddenly becomes an issue? And no, Act 440 will not solve the problem, but it’s a starting place. And a start is better than nothing.
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