Pornhub and other affiliated porn websites have blocked access to their sites for people in Texas over the state’s new age verification law.
Internet users in Texas trying to access Pornhub and other porn sites controlled by parent company Aylo were presented with a message on Thursday informing them that their access had been disabled in order to comply with state law, according to a report by the Houston Chronicle.
“As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors,” the message read.
A Syracuse Orange fan wearing a Pornhub t-shirt poses for cameras 52-33. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
Pornhub model take a selfie ( Ethan Miller /Getty)
“Until the real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Texas,” the Pornhub message continued. “In doing so, we are complying with the law, as we always do, but hope that governments around the world will implement laws that actually protect the safety and security of users.”
The message went on to claim, “While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, providing identification every time you want to visit an adult platform is not an effective solution for protecting users online, and in fact, will put minors and your privacy at risk.”
As Breitbart News reported, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the legislation in June 2023, and it was scheduled to go into effect on September 1, but it was temporarily blocked by U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra one day before it was set to take effect. Last week, a federal appeals court upheld the Texas rule, which requires age verification for porn sites.
Pornhub reacted to the Texas age-verification, calling it “ineffective, haphazard and dangerous,” and claimed it would drive users “from those few websites which comply, to the thousands of websites, with far fewer safety measures in place, which do not comply.”
“Very few sites are able to compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place,” the porn website said. “To protect minors and user privacy, any legislation must be enforced against all platforms offering adult content.”
Aylo’s VP of brand and community Alex Kekesi told Variety, “This is not the end. We are reviewing options and consulting with our legal team.”
“We will continue to fight for our industry and the performers that legally earn a living, and we will continue to appeal through all available judicial recourse to recognize that this law is unconstitutional,” Kekesi continued, adding that Aylo “has publicly supported age verification of users for years, but we believe that any law to this effect must ensure minors do not access content intended for adults and preserve user safety and privacy.”
“We believe that the real solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ ages at the point of access — the users’ devices — and to deny or permit access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that verification,” Kekesi said.
Pornhub and the other affiliated sites are also blocked for users in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Utah, all of which have established similar laws.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
