Publications

Appeals court reinstates Texas AV law for adult content
In a move no-one expected, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal has stepped in an overturned the injunction which stayed the implementation of Texas Bill HB1181, requiring age verification and health warnings for pornography. There is no detail, and a full hearing of the...

Lessons from Texas HB 1811 judgement
The federal district court in Austin, Texas has granted an injunction preventing Texas Bill 1181 coming into force on September 1 2023. The Bill required age verification for online pornography, and the publication of defined health warnings. This judgement provides...

Judgement allowing an injunction to stop Texas law HB1181
This is the full judgement from the federal district court in Austin, Texas which granted an injunction preventing Texas Bill 1181 coming into force on September 1 2023. The Bill required age verification for online pornography, and the publication of defined health...

AV for Porn Sites: Why it Will Work; a response to Barry Collins’ Forbes article
In his article "Age Verification For Porn Sites: Why It Won’t Work", in Forbes, Barry Collins sets out the case the title promises. Here, we respond to a number of his arguments. First, a general point: if we can put a man on the moon, we can prove your age...

Low adoption rates make parental controls a poor substitute for age verification
As the debate about age verification intensifies with several hearings in US federal courts challenging the constitutionality of state laws requiring age assurance for adult content (e.g. , Louisiana, Utah, Texas), using social media (Arkansas), and age-approrpriate...

AVPA advises NIST on testing facial age estimation
The Association submitted feedback to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA on their plans to offer testing for facial age estimation. We welcomed the decision to provide test protocols for Age Estimation Technologies, and made the...

US Federal Court dismisses constitutional challenge to Utah’s Law requiring AV for adult websites
Round One in the constitutional fight in the USA on age verification has been won in Utah by those who wish to prevent children being exposed to adult content online. The Judge dismissed the case because the state plays no part in the enforcement of S.B. 287. The...

AVPA speaks to Times Radio
We were pleased to speak to Times Radio about this article by Mark Sellman, their Technology Correspondent. Listen to the 7 minute discussion here. [video width="1920" height="1080"...

A response to Professor Jeff Kosseff Opinion on Daily Beast
An OpEd on Daily Beast by Professor Jeff Kosseff argues "Social Media Age Requirements Are Anti-Free Speech." First, we'd encourage him to look at how data-minimised, privacy-preserving Age Verification (AV) has been developed in Europe, with no need to retain...

US State Age Verification Compliance Calendar
With some 144 bills in across 43 US States introduced in 2023 which specifically attempt to protect children from various harms on the Internet, keeping track of what is required where is already a huge challenge for many online services. Even where Bills are copied...