The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently stepped up raids of porn studios in Southern California's San Fernando Valley, an area of suburban Los Angeles considered to be the pornography capital of the world, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Saying it wants to ensure children are not being sexually exploited, the FBI sent agents to more than a dozen porn-production facilities in Van Nuys and Chatsworth, Calif., in the last three months to check on the ages of people who appear in porn videos.
In 2005, the federal government began requiring pornographers to obtain two forms of identification from performers in sexually explicit productions -- and to keep copies of their ID on file indefinitely. Those records must be referred to on video labels. Violations are felonies.
The Justice Department has only prosecuted one company -- Girls Gone Wild -- under the new law. In September, the company pleaded guilty to 10 counts, and its founder -- Joe Francis -- pleaded guilty to two felonies.
