WASHINGTON—The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is scheduled to host an expert panel on age verification and its implications at the federal level, AVN has learned.
Taking place at the Constitution Center, 400 7th St SW, Washington, D.C. 20024, on January 28, the panel will feature experts in age verification and online child safety, including representatives from organizations critical of existing age verification proposals currently before Congress.
Glaringly, no companies or stakeholders from the adult entertainment industry or adjacent sectors were invited to sit on the panel.
Juliana Gruenwald Henderson, deputy director of the FTC's Office of Public Affairs, declined to elaborate on why the panelists don't include adult industry stakeholders, such as the Free Speech Coalition. She simply told AVN in an email, "No comment." This could potentially suggest a bias against pornography firms.
An anonymous source at the FTC confirmed to AVN that the decision not to involve adult industry firms was due to bias.
Further speculation can be initiated as key stakeholder groups shared that the adult industry was iced out from planning and programming the panels at the FTC event.
A spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition confirmed to AVN that FTC never reached out to senior leadership at the coalition for their input or to appear on Jan. 28.
Expanding on the concerns of bias at the FTC, First Amendment attorney Corey Silverstein told AVN in a text that the FTC's behavior in this incident is unsurprising.
"This is a long-expected and goes hand in hand with the eventual federal age verification law," Silverstein warned. "The FTC will be tasked with being the enforcement arm for federal age verification, and they want to be ready to hit the ground running."
"I have no doubt that the FTC wants to determine for themselves which age verification technologies and providers they will deem acceptable," he added.
Panelists named include several experts who are attached to organizations that have actively lobbied for age verification laws under the guise of "protecting minors."
For example, Clare Morell sits on a panel session called "Navigating the Regulatory Maze of Age Verification." Morell is a fellow at the Ethics & Public Policy Center.
The center is an organization that was central to the Project 2025 efforts, centrally organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation. As AVN reported, Project 2025 — tied to the administration of President Donald Trump—has actively proposed a "ban" on porn and revoking First Amendment protections for the content category.
Also featured on the panel is Iain Corby, the executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) trade group. Corby has remained a divisive figure in the adult industry space due to his vocal support of protecting the rights of free expression for adult companies, but ultimately siding with anti-pornography groups.
Some stakeholders at the FTC panel include state-level regulators and lawmakers. For instance, Katherine Haas, director of the Utah Department of Commerce Consumer Protection Division, will speak on the above mentioned panel. Haas was a key player in the Federal Trade Commission complaint that was later settled against Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, with a U.S. headquarters based in Austin, Texas, and an operational presence in California, primarily Los Angeles and San Diego.
AVN reported last September on Aylo's $5 million settlement with the FTC and the State of Utah due to CSAM allegations tied to compliance shortcomings that predate the acquisition of Aylo, formerly called MindGeek, by Ottawa-based private equity group Ethical Capital Partners. Aylo didn't return a request for comment on whether the company was invited to speak on the FTC panel by press time. Further note that the only stakeholders involved are representatives from major technology firms and trade organizations, including leading officials from Google, Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram), Apple, and age verification companies such as major player Yoti.
But one expert who stands out is Jennifer Huddleston, a technology fellow at the libertarian-leaning free-market think tank the Cato Institute, based in Washington, D.C. Huddleston, in true form, with the strong support for the First Amendment that is characteristic of Cato throughout its history, has openly expressed concerned over the age verification and the inferred social contract of trusting huge companies with the sensitive personally identifiable information of everyday platform users.
"There are broader debates about how to encourage the potentially beneficial uses of technology while protecting kids and teens from potential harms, but an approach that would require all users to verify their age or identity when logging on not only fails to resolve the concerns about kids’ and teens’ technology use but also creates a range of pitfalls related to privacy and speech for users of all ages," Huddleston wrote in a 2025 op-ed for the Dallas Morning News.
This is a developing story.
