A new Louisiana law will allow parents to take legal action against companies that do not have reasonable age verification in place to keep minors out of porn sites and other sites containing harmful material. The law focuses on pornography, citing that “advances in technology, the universal availability of the internet, and limited age verification requirements” have created a public health crisis.
The Louisiana Age Verification law will come into effect on 1st January 2023.
It’s a significant milestone and demonstrates the important role an increasing number of lawmakers and regulators want age verification to play in keeping children safe online. So what does it mean exactly?
The Louisiana Age Verification Law
Websites won’t be required to have age verification systems, but it does allow the State of Louisiana to sue websites that “contain a substantial portion” of porn, and do not have verification in place, therefore putting minors at risk. These sites will be held liable if they fail to check the age of individuals attempting to access the content on their website.
Importantly, the law also states that these spaces “shall not retain any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material.” Technology now exists to let individuals prove they are the right age to access age-restricted content and platforms, without the need to share lots of personal information.
Privacy-preserving age verification
We have a range of age verification solutions available, which allow companies to check their users are the right age, without retaining any personal information.
Currently, a driver’s licence or other state-issued identification such as a digitised identification card are needed to access these sites in Louisiana. Our leading, facial age estimation gives everyone a secure and privacy preserving way to prove their age, without sharing their name or any ID documents. Yoti’s free Digital ID app allows individuals to just share a verified age attribute, such as ‘over 18’, and doesn’t share any personal details.
We already support a number of the world’s largest adult sites and social media platforms. We have performed over 550 million checks using our facial age estimation, and we are the leading global provider of age assurance. Our checks have reached across retail, gaming, gambling, dating, social media, telecoms, live streaming, vaping, ecommerce and adult content services.
Enabling young people to thrive and be safe online is so important to us. Age verification can help do this, creating age-appropriate experiences that mean children have a safer, more positive digital life.
If you’d like to learn more about our age verification technology, please get in touch.