State Sen. Todd Weiler picked up the phone Monday morning and received an angry, profanity-laced tirade from a Utah man upset that he could no longer access Pornhub, thanks to a bill the senator sponsored.
Weiler’s legislation, which takes effect Wednesday, requires porn websites to verify the age of visitors to ensure minors don’t get access to adult content and allows parents to sue the companies for damages if they don’t comply.
That prompted Pornhub, the busiest porn website in the United States, to begin blocking access to all Utah users as of Monday.
“As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,” a statement from Pornhub — and an accompanying SFW (suitable-for-work) video featuring adult performer Cherie DeVille — says.
“While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk,” the company says.
The statement adds that, without proper enforcement, underage users could be driven to other, less reputable sites that don’t have the same standards. The most effective solution, the company contends, is to identify users by their device and “allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification.”
“Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah,” the statement says. “Please contact your representatives before it is too late and demand device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy.”
Pornhub, according to internet analytics company similarweb, is the 12th most-visited site in the world and 10th busiest in the United States, getting 2.5 billion U.S. visits per month. Globally, it ranks above Amazon and TikTok.
Utah is not the only state that requires age verification to prevent minors from accessing adult content. Louisiana recently enacted an age verification law, NPR reported, as have Arkansas and Mississippi. Lawmakers in 10 other states have proposed similar legislation that is at various stages of the legislative process.
Weiler said he anticipates the site will find a solution.
“They are complying with Louisiana’s law, which is essentially the same” as Utah’s, he said. “So I expect they will eventually comply with Utah’s, as well.”
PornHub’s parent company, MindGeek, has developed AgeID, one of Europe’s leading applications for age verification that allows users to be verified across multiple platforms.
In 2019, the United Kingdom ditched its age-verification push after encountering problems and is in the process of reworking its law, according to Wired. Regulators in Germany and France have been trying for several years to force pornography sites to check ages.
On Reddit, users pointed out that Utahns could get around the block by using a VPN — or a virtual private network — to disguise their location. Others mocked Utah’s policy as an affront to the “small government” philosophy conservatives supposedly espouse in Utah.
The company declined to comment beyond what was said in the video.
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