BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A new law in Louisiana focuses on cracking down on age verification on porn websites to protect children.
The law went into effect in the new year on Sunday, Jan. 1.
Louisiana lawmakers called pornography a public health crisis “corroding influence” on children in the bill. According to Act 440, requiring age verification was due to young children being easily exposed to porn because of how widely available the internet is.
“This law had bipartisan support and passed almost unanimously in both the House & Senate with close to 50 co-authors, including Democrats and Republicans,” tweeted Rep. Laurie Schlegel Tuesday. “It was not a Republican win but a win for children in Louisiana. This bill is about protecting children not limiting adults.”
The law focuses on mental health, citing that porn adds to hypersexualization and could affect children’s self-esteem negatively.
“Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction,” the law states.
Websites without age verification put corporations at risk of a lawsuit. According to the law, Louisianans can sue websites with over a third of porn content for not having age verification.
“This is not your daddy’s ‘Playboy,'” Rep. Schlegel tweeted on Dec. 29. “And if pornography companies refuse to be responsible, then we must hold them accountable. This law is a first step.”
