As a temporary workaround for Age Verification (AV) check on WordPress sites, I created a lightweight plugin that automatically blurs all JPG images on a website based on the visitor's location. It's completely SEO friendly, and does not block search engine bots from crawling pages.
You can
download it here.
It can be used temporarily, until more permanent AV check solution is implemented.
The plugin uses MaxMind GeoLite2 database (Cities files), and you need to download it and replace empty placeholder file(s) provided.
== Description ==
This plugin is ideal for websites that need to obscure image content based on legal or regional restrictions, such as:
- Age-restricted content.
- Geo-targeted campaigns.
- Legal compliance in specific jurisdictions.
== Features ==
- Detects country and US state using the MaxMind GeoLite2 database.
- Simple admin settings panel to choose target countries/states.
- Blurs all .jpg images, even those loaded via CDN or external URLs.
- Uses CSS blur filter (no image replacement or delay).
- Performance-friendly — only activates for targeted users.
- Easily extendable — feel free to build on it.
== Installation ==
- Upload the plugin to /wp-content/plugins/geo-blur-images/
- Activate it via the WordPress Plugins menu.
- Download and place the MaxMind GeoLite2 City database in the /MaxMind/ directory (the provided file is just a placeholder). You’ll need to
create a MaxMind account and download the GeoLite2-City.mmdb file.
== How it works ==
- On page load, PHP checks the visitor’s IP and matches it with the GeoLite2 database.
- If the user is in a targeted country or state, all .jpg images are blurred using CSS.
- No server-side image processing is involved.
Please feel free to reuse the code or improve it. Sharing your modifications is more than welcome! You can reuse it for any kind of projects, not necessarily just Wordpress.The plugin is submitted to Wordpress.org and will be available upon approval.
If anyone has a complete list of ISO country codes or US state names for blocking, please share them in the comments below.