Law / United States / 
Louisiana
Act 440 (HB 142), age verification for material harmful to minors
La. R.S. 9:2800.29 (Acts 2022, No. 440, enrolled as R.S. 9:2800.28)
In force since .
An adult content age verification (AV) rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to commercial entities whose websites contain a substantial portion (more than one third) of material harmful to minors.
- Perform reasonable age verification of Louisiana visitors, confirming they are 18 or older.no control in the NIST Privacy Framework
- Do not retain any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material; this binds a third party that performs the age verification as well.NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.DM-P5
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.DM-P5Data are destroyed according to policy.
- NIST CSF 2.0
- ID.AM-08Systems, hardware, software, services, and data are managed throughout their life cycles
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-DET-004AI System Observability
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST Privacy Framework, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalties
Private civil action for damages resulting from a minor's access, plus attorney fees and court costs, with no fixed statutory amount; a companion statute, La. R.S. 51:2121 (2023), lets the Attorney General fine noncompliant sites up to $5,000 per day and, for a knowing violation, an additional $10,000 per violation, both paid to the state, not the private plaintiff.
Penalty structure
A civil penalty of up to $5,000 per day of violation, assessed by the court in an action the Attorney General may bring, after a 30-day cure period, under a companion statute enacted alongside this Section: La. R.S. 51:2121 (2023 La. Acts No. 216, HB 77). An additional civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation applies where the entity is found to have knowingly failed to perform reasonable age verification. Both penalties are paid to the Department of Justice to fund cyber-crime investigations, not to a private plaintiff.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Day
- Per violation amount
- 5,000
Over one month of continuous breach, USD 152,200.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Louisiana Attorney General, who may investigate and bring a civil penalty action in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court (East Baton Rouge Parish) under a companion statute, La. R.S. 51:2121 (2023 La. Acts No. 216, HB 77); this Section (R.S. 9:2800.29) also arms an individual with a private right of action for damages.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- What makes a method a "commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data" under La. R.S. 9:2800.29(D)(8)(b)(ii)?
- How is "total material on a website" measured for the "substantial portion" threshold of more than thirty-three and one-third percent in La. R.S. 9:2800.29(D)(9), by number of items, running time or page views, for a site that mixes material harmful to minors with other content?
What it reaches
Age threshold
18
Covered services
Websites containing a substantial portion of material harmful to minors.
Obligation class
Age verification, Retention
Verification methods
Gov ID, Digital ID, Transactional data
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- a commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material, where "substantial portion" means more than thirty-three and one-third percent of total material on a website, which meets the definition of "material harmful to minors"
What it makes you log
Log retention
A commercial entity found to have knowingly retained it is liable to the individual for damages from the retention, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees.
- As of
- Basis
- Fixed
- Prohibits retaining
- Identifying information of the individual, which a commercial entity or a third party that performs the required age verification may not retain after access has been granted to the material
Logging duty
The section makes a commercial entity liable if it fails to perform reasonable age verification before a person accesses material harmful to minors. It does not require a log or record of the check, and it names no audit; the remedy is a private action for damages. Subsection B(2) instead bars keeping identifying information after access is granted.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Commercial entities whose websites contain a substantial portion of material harmful to minors, as the Section defines that term, must perform reasonable age verification of Louisiana visitors. A companion statute enacted in 2023, section 51:2121 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, separately lets the Attorney General sue for civil penalties alongside the private right of action in this Section.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app publishes adult content.
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