The whole age verification scheme was found unconstitutional and struck down in the COPA trial years ago in the USA. So, this type of legislation is a no-starter in the USA but the same overall goals could be attempted by other means.

You are right about the cookie tracking tho ... If it can be made to work in the EU it will see its international adoption in varying forms.

English law has been evolving into an anti-porn stance for some time and I am surprised it didn't end up in the courts there. However, if the German porn laws are an example, it just may be allowed under the EU charter.

This is a fine example of how a government will protect its citizens from the evils of Internet Porn ... Most cannot make the content illegal but they will try to make its creation and distribution as difficult as possible.

World governments cannot successfully censor the Internet totally -- there are too many back doors out; China and the Islamic states are a good example. This scares the piss out of the worlds governments as they cannot control the exchange of information -- porn is just a side show, albeit a popular diversion of the day to day existence of most people.

Australia is a good example of what the UK censorship laws may produce and that is a harbinger of bad tiding ...