Since January 1, adults in Louisiana must show their credentials when accessing a porn site. The US state has passed a law requiring them to present proof that they are of legal age, by means of a driver’s license or other government-issued identification. “Law 440” applies to all sites whose content consists of at least 33.3% pornographic material “harmful to minors”.
The goal defended by Republican Laurie Schlegel – also a therapist specializing in sex addiction – is to “protect children from the dangers of online pornography”, as she explained on Twitter. Other states, such as Arkansas, Mississippi and Utah, are following Louisiana’s lead, with proposed legislation being discussed in their respective senates. It is also an elected official from Utah, Mike Lee, who recently introduced a bill at the federal level, in Washington, to require age verification throughout the country.
The Louisiana initiative worries privacy organizations, which deplore the opportunity offered to platforms to take control of the personal data of their visitors. “There is an explicit mention in the law that verification tools and websites that apply age verification must not keep (information) Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told US public radio NPR. “But users don’t have many guarantees that the data will be deleted and (not) shared or otherwise used. »
For their part, some sites give the inhabitants of Louisiana the trick to circumvent the obligation to reveal their identity: use a virtual private network (VPN) which would deceive the authorities on the place of origin of the Internet connection.