Watching porn in Louisiana just got a lot harder – unless you’re alright with submitting your driver’s license or a government-issued ID in order to access porn sites.
This is thanks to a recently passed law that requires age verification for any website that contains 33.3 percent or more pornographic material (a digression: we’re seeing a strong opportunity here for sites featuring only 33.2 percent pornographic material).
The way it works is that porn websites verify a visitor’s age using an app called LA Wallet, which requires a Louisiana state ID or driver’s license.
It’s one thing to see this on paper, and a different thing to experience it when actually trying to access, say, Pornhub. Twitter user Public Defendering recorded the process on video and embedded it in a tweet.
In the video, you see the mobile version of Pornhub asking the visitor to verify their age.
“Louisiana law now requires us to put in place a process for verifying the age of users who connect to our site from Louisiana,” reads the message. “The privacy and security of the Pornhub community is our priority, and we thank you for your cooperation.”
While Pornhub claims that it does not collect any data during this process, and that the process is “carried out by reputable service providers who specialize in verifying the age of online users,” we can imagine some folks not being too comfortable with handing over official documents in order to access a pornographic site.
Notably, Utah senator Mike Lee recently proposed a law that would require age verification for accessing porn websites on a national level (not to mention essentially criminalizing a big chunk of all sexually explicit content).
