The thorny problem of age verification to access pornographic sites recently gave rise to a law in the US state of Louisiana. Since January 1, platforms that massively disseminate pornographic content are required to verify the age of Internet users. According to the American site Gizmodo, the Pornhub site has decided to comply with the law, along with YouPorn, Brazzers and Redtube, also properties of the MindGeek group.
Third party verification
Specifically, Internet users who connect to Pornhub, YouPorn and others are invited to connect to a partner platform, Allpasstrust. To access pornographic content, every Internet user must now create an account with Allpasstrust, then connect it to the LA Wallet government application, which is offered by the State of Louisiana to obtain a digital copy of their driver’s license. Access to the document by Allpasstrust allows it to certify to its partner (Pornhub) that the Internet user is of legal age, verifying their date of birth.
As the specialized site Ars Technica reminds us, the new law applied on January 1 prohibits pornographic sites from keeping any personal data of the Internet user. Going through a separate third-party service and partner is therefore the most likely solution to be adopted. On the other hand, users must trust this third-party company to store and protect the information related to their connection to said platforms, which can be particularly sensitive.
In France, the issue of controlling the age of Internet users to access pornographic sites has also made headlines again. For the last few months, Arcom (ex-CSA) has been suing various platforms (such as Pornhub) for the lack of age verification on the homepage. At the moment, none of the main pornographic sites have implemented this type of tools, which are also criticized by the Cnil for the risk they represent in terms of handling personal data.
In addition to the privacy-related risks, these age verification measures could prove mostly ineffective: only a handful of platforms are prosecuted and risk full blocking in France. If a verification or blocking tool is set up, using a simple VPN also allows a connection in a few clicks. Flaws that are already noticeable in Louisiana.
Source: BFM TV
