Texans can no longer access Pornhub – without a VPN. Starting Thursday, when people in Texas try to access any of the porn sites owned by Aylo, formerly known as MindGeek, they will instead see a long message opposing age verification laws.
Laws requiring age verification on adult entertainment sites have already taken effect in states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Utah, Montana and North Carolina. But Texas' age verification law stalled when a group of porn industry advocates and companies objected to the legislation, prompting a U.S. district judge to rule that implementation could harm free speech protections. Last week, the US Court of Appeals ruled that Texas can indeed enforce this law.
Although these laws are intended to prevent minors from accessing adult content, advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and think tank R Street have long opposed website age verification because it can threaten data security and anonymity. Instead of performing age verifications, which Pornhub called “arbitrary and dangerous,” the site simply cut off access to states that have such laws.
“Because age verification software requires users to hand over highly sensitive information, it opens the door to the risk of a data breach,” Pornhub wrote on its blog. “Whether your intentions are good or not, governments have historically struggled to secure this data.”
Pornhub hasn't always taken this approach. Louisiana was the first state to put one of these laws in place in early 2023. Initially, Pornhub complied with age verification via the state-run LA Wallet app, which connects to a Louisiana resident's ID. In other words, you were legally required to verify your government ID so you could watch porn.
Once these laws extended to other states, other Pornhub and Aylo sites took a different approach. In some states that require age verification to visit adult sites, you'll be greeted by a safe-for-work video from porn star Cherie DeVille, where she explains Pornhub's position on the data privacy issues at hand.
Adult performers living in these states can still use Pornhub through their creator accounts, because they have already verified their identity as a prerequisite for uploading content to the site.
These changes to state internet regulations come at a time when access to online platforms is up for debate in Congress. The Children's Internet Safety Act and similar bills are gaining traction in Congress after numerous hearings with tech executives about children's online safety, but a common refrain is that many of these safety initiatives can backfire when implemented by bad actors. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed a bill this week that could ban TikTok and other “apps controlled by foreign adversaries.” Now, the TikTok bill will be debated in the Senate, where it could have broader ramifications for government interference in the technology.
