Louisiana House approves punishment for porn websites that don’t verify user’s age 

The Louisiana House of Representatives gave final passage to a bill that would let the state attorney general pursue civil penalties against companies that do not comply with a law that requires pornography websites to verify the age of its users. 

House Bill 77, sponsored by Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, builds on a law that went into effect earlier this year that requires pornography websites to verify the ages of its users. The law, which Schlegel also authored, requires websites with at least one-third “material harmful to minors” use certain age verification measures. 

The bill passed 101-1, with Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, voting against it. Landry was also the only member to have opposed Schlegel’s 2022 proposal. 

Landry pointed out that minors who want to get around the age verification measures can set up a virtual private network (VPN) that allows a user to disguise their location. Virtual private networks typically take just a few minutes to set up and require no advanced computer knowledge. 

Landry also questioned how 33.3% of “material harmful to minors,” will be calculated. 

“Taken to an absurd level, if 80% of the page is ‘Blue’s Clues’ and 20% is pornography, is that OK?” Landry asked. 

Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans, also raised concerns about the one-third figure.

“I want to know how that’s determined. Does the [attorney general] make that determination? Is there objective criteria that is based upon?” 

“I think there are unintended consequences with that one-third criteria,” Willard said. 

Schlegel pointed out the one-third language also appears in her 2022 bill, which is now law. 

She also sent lawmakers a list of porn video titles she said she found on the homepage of Xvideos, one of the three largest pornography websites, which has not complied with Louisiana’s age verification law. 

The titles include references to incest, Girl Scouts, prostitution and racial role-play. 

Free speech advocates are concerned the bill would chill constitutionally protected speech. 

“The First Amendment protects adults’ right to access protected speech, including pornography, in the privacy of their own homes,” Chris Kaiser, advocacy director for the Louisiana ACLU, said in an interview. “By requiring adults to provide age verification… it’s burdening their fundamental rights to free speech.” 

On the House floor, Schlegel argued the age verification methods websites use take less than a minute, which she does not believe to be burdensome.