Any one want to take a guess at how long it took 2023 to get just as weird as the last couple of years? First month? Week?
Incredibly, Louisiana laws that went into effect on January 1 were able to kickstart the strangeness. One of these laws require pornographic websites to verify the age of Louisiana visitors by way of government issued ID or even public and private records from various sources. These procedures are being set up with the intent to keep minors off of these websites.
On one hand, the government overreach is not good at all. This is surely going to be a huge privacy issue. On the other hand, any one who gets asked for their driver’s license to visit a seedy website and willingly provides that information is walking right into whatever privacy issue is going to be there. It’s like placing your wallet on the sidewalk in New Orleans—no one should touch it unless they are returning it to you, but I would never count on that being the case unless it comes back a few bills or a credit card lighter and you did it to yourself. The government shouldn’t be building lists of who goes to what site, but if you are showing them your ID to get in then why wouldn’t they use that info?
If this law stays on the books, then let’s hope it slows traffic to those sites by minors and adults alike. If it doesn’t, then maybe the states and the websites can work out a better way to vet the visitors trying to access those sites. Keeping my fingers crossed that a snowball effect will have TikTok and Instagram and the other sites all shut down or see drastically less traffic as well.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year will bring us!
Sources:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/louisiana-law-requires-id-to-view-porn
Bayou Observant 