BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – Age verification laws on the internet are undergoing significant changes as more states seek to implement stricter measures. Since 2023, nine states in the U.S. have passed laws requiring websites with a significant amount of content deemed “harmful to minors” to incorporate third-party age verification systems. While these laws primarily target pornography websites, some states are now extending the regulations to social media platforms.
However, the effectiveness of these laws has been limited. In most states, companies have opted for geoblocking or restricting access to their websites instead of implementing age verification systems. Louisiana, on the other hand, stands out for its successful implementation of age verification due to its robust digital identification program.
Louisiana passed Act 440 in 2022, making it mandatory for adult content websites to verify the age of users before granting access to their content. Users could verify their age through a digitized ID card or other public or private transactional data. One company, Aylo, which owns Pornhub, chose to use an anonymous remote age verification service called LA Wallet A-RAV to comply with the law. When users attempted to access the website, a popup would appear, requesting age verification through LA Wallet, the state’s digital license app. LA Wallet, developed by Baton Rouge company Envoc, has completed over 2.9 million remote age verification sessions since its implementation.
The distinctive feature of the Louisiana system is its anonymity and lack of data collection. LA Wallet does not store the origin of the website or user data. The system works by mediating between compliance companies and content providers, ensuring a secure and non-logging infrastructure. With an overall enrollment increase from 30,000 to more than 67,000 when the age verification law came into effect, LA Wallet has proven successful in Louisiana.
While Louisiana’s implementation of age verification legislation influenced other states to introduce similar laws, many states lack digital identification programs. This limitation has left websites with few options for compliance. According to Mike Stabile, director of public affairs for the Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry trade association, a more effective approach would be to require on-device filters and parental control features.
Privacy concerns have also been raised, prompting Envoc to develop new technology using facial age estimation. This technology combines computer vision and machine learning to estimate a person’s age without identifying or recognizing any individual. In the meantime, LA Wallet continues to explore new use cases and remains ahead of most states in implementing these systems.
Advocates for a different approach argue that mandating users to disclose sensitive data could potentially make the internet more dangerous for both adults and children. They propose legislation that requires device manufacturers to incorporate filters and parental control features, ensuring user safety without compromising adult access to content.
As the debate continues, the shift towards stricter age verification measures highlights the need for innovative solutions that balance privacy concerns with the protection of minors on the internet. With some states following Louisiana’s lead, the future of age verification legislation remains uncertain.