Why don't they have a program to identify facial features in the web getting underage porn off?

Viewing porn is not a felony.

But I hear in the news about people being charged with downloading inappropriate porn.
In order to investigate those charges, wouldn't one have to allow inappropriate content to exist in order to file a case?
And the action of allowing the illegal material to be displayed in the first place, wouldn't that action be breaking ordinances in itself?
And as far as legal adult porn, yes it's legal, but you still must follow ordinances to who you display it to. Or the material will change its status.

Child porn, which is illegal no matter the age of the viewer.

Yes.
Now if a system of verification of identification is established, than not only will local ordinances begin to be followed, but the effect of having to think about being identified, should lessen illegal searches.
Since the demand for the material will be less, there should be less incentives for the producers to create the illegal material. That should bring all crimes connected with the material down.

Since child pornography is already illegal, why would anyone (either viewers or producers) ever comply with such a system of verification?

this Cobb fella seems to be a few bricks short of a load. I am still waiting for an answer on why kids seeing porn online is a problem.

As an attempt to comply with local ordinances the distributors of the adult material ( Google, Yahoo, etc) would require that it's clients verify proof of age before allowing them to view the "adult" material.
Seems simple.

I suppose that argument should be taken with the citizens that wrote laws against distribution of porn to minors.

Why would they do that?

Google, Yahoo etc. don't reference child pornography in any way. They are very careful not to grant access in any way to child pornography. Anything that is posted is instantly scrubbed (after being reported to the police). They don't allow people to view it.

Allowing people to view child pornography after they verify the "client's" proof of age would be horrible... a huge step backwards.

Are you really suggesting that google should allow certain people to view child pornography through their service?

Verification of age would be so that "adult" material can be distributed to an "adult" market.

If you are talking about child pornography, then this a very bad idea. Child Pornography is illegal and should be illegal. It should not be allowed to be distributed to an adult market (or any other market) under any circumstances.

Are you talking about child pornography?

I think he's referring to minors being able to access adult pornographic sites...in my opinion child pornography is not the right term to utilize...I think child sexual exploitation sites or child abuse sites fit the bill best.

I don't understand.

What exactly is a child sexual exploitation site, and why isn't it already illegal?

Any adult material retailer not attempting to verify the age of the person who it is distributing "adult" material (porn, sex toys, etc ) is already breaking ordinances.
When you use a search engine and type certain key words, adult material is accessed.
The age verification process should appear before allowing access to this section of the engine.

I believe his intent is that if all legal pornography stays within his proposed system of regulations, then child pornography will be easier to expose/halt/prosecute due to the fact that it can only exist outside the system.

So, he is proposing rules for legal pornography, with the intent that those rules will stop child pornography.

Yes. Under a verification of age system, to access adult material, it would create an adult section of the engine.
If an adult was to send porn in the web to a minor, it would detect it. The adult being a representative of an adult business, or anyone attempting to break such an ordinance.
The procedure itself should lessen the demand for illegal material, such as child porn. Less demand = less $$ = less motivation to commit criminal activity.

This is simply not true. There has been a lot of research on this claim and it isn't correct in the pornography industry.

And... have you noticed how well the war on drugs has gone?

Ok Then. Let's play with your idea of an Adult section of the internet.

"Lolita" is a novel that involves a middle aged man having sex with a 12 year old girl. Should this be in the Adult section of the internet, or the regular section?

Each Nation has censorship boards to decide what is adult material. I don't know of many Nations that doesn't have some material censored from its public.
Start with the obvious, porn being accessed by any toddler that is randomly pressing a smart phone's button. The public can request anything inappropriate that is out of the adult section to be placed in. The same way it decides when does a BB gun becomes too powerful and it is needed to verify proof of age to obtain it.

You dodged my question... but you raised another question. Let's say that Lolita is deemed to be "adult" in Canada, but it is not adult in the US (this is a pure hypothetical).

Are you going to police the borders?