Leading adult entertainment website Pornhub has pulled the plug on Texas, blocking all users in the Texas State from accessing its content due to a new age-verification law. The action comes on the heels of a federal appeals court decision that upheld the Texas statute which demands that pornography sites ensure visitors are at least 18 years old through age checks before granting them entry, a move endorsed by Texas Attorney General's Office after a preceding judge labeled the law as a violation of free speech under the Constitution, as reported by CBS Austin.
Pornhub, which is operated by parent company Aylo, suggested to Texans through a message on its site that "the only effective solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ age on their device and to either deny or allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that verification." According to Variety, despite calls for a device-based solution, the current laws have pushed Pornhub to fully disable access in Texas, joining a list of states with similar restrictions including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Utah.
Texas H.B. 11811, signed into action by Governor Greg Abbott in June 2023 and set to roll out on September 1st after being temporarily stayed by a lawsuit from the Free Speech Coalition which includes Aylo, is at the epicenter of this dispute. The law affects online publishers if over one-third of their content is deemed "sexual material harmful to minors," requiring them to use a government-issued ID or other data to check the age of all site visitors.
Pornhub's message, reportedly displayed to Texas users, emphasized their compliance with the law but voiced their stance saying, the age-verification adopted by Texas is "ineffective, haphazard and dangerous" and it "will drive users from those few websites which comply, to the thousands of websites, with far fewer safety measures in place, which do not comply," underscoring the potential risks to minors and adult privacy. As per the Variety report, Aylo's recent acquisition by the Canadian firm Ethical Capital Partners, was done with a promise to sharpen the focus on "trust and safety" and combat illegal online content, but the new Texas law remains a significant hurdle for the company's operations within the state's jurisdiction.
