The virtual landscape of Arizona is shifting once again as adult content sites are being fenced off or nudged to demand your ID before you get a peek. Thanks to a state law that fell into place on Friday, Pornhub has thrown up its hands and barred Arizonans from its platform, dodging the requirement of users flashing their IDs as a ticket to online adult content. As it stands, trying to access Pornhub from within Arizona's borders will hit you with a message explaining the block and pointing fingers at the state law, as reported by Phoenix New Times.
Under the helm of Gov. Katie Hobbs, the law—inked earlier this year—aims to keep the curious eyes of minors from adult content. However, echoing across the web is the concern that gathering personal data, as the new requirements suggest, could be a bigger beast to wrangle, potentially jeopardizing user privacy. Pornhub campaigned against the law, suggesting safer paths such as using device-based parental controls instead, forcing them to slam the gates shut on Arizona IPs, as reported by AZFamily. Meanwhile, Arizona's tech-savvy citizens have been slipping through the cracks with virtual private networks (VPNs), cloaking their location with the digital equivalent of a disguise and effectively vaulting the digital wall.
The mandate, House Bill 2112, set its sights on companies failing to enforce "reasonable age verification procedures," as indicated by state Rep. Nick Kuppar. While he acknowledged the challenge of crafting foolproof internet restrictions, Kuppar argues that the law's spirit is to safeguard children, not to tangle up adults in red tape. However ironically, Kuppar said in an interview with AZFamily, "I think with everything to do with the internet, there’s never going to be a perfect fix around. There’s never going to be, there will always be holes to everything."
But, the new frontier of age checks brings to the fore more than just practical compliance issues. Pornhub's parent company Aylo has slammed the collection of sensitive user data as 'ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous', citing the drastic traffic decline in Louisiana once similar laws were implemented. Their statement, acquired by AZFamily, said, "These people did not stop looking for porn. They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age." Aylo continued to advocate for an "effective device-based age verification solution" as the safer route on this treacherous digital highway.
While nearly 20 states have rolled out parallel laws as of January, the tussle between privacy concerns and child safety continues to stir the pot.
