Pornhub BLOCKS users in Utah after state passes new law requiring sites to verify ages so minors can’t access adult content
- Utah residents can no longer watch Pornhub after the company retaliated against a new law requiring the site to verify ages
- Lawmakers in Utah passed the law to prevent minors from accessing adult content, but Pornhub said the legislation is not the answer to “protecting” children
Utah residents can no longer log into Pornhub after lawmakers passed a law requiring the raunchy site to verify ages so minors can’t access its content.
While the law was intended to ban only minors, Pornhub retaliated and banned all residents of the state for claiming that the state law was not the “most effective solution for protecting children.”
Utahns noticed the ban on Monday when they came across an invalid page, “403 – This state is not whitelisted.” A 403 code means that a website is banned.
The website embargo comes days before the adult site was required to implement verification requirements on May 3.
Utah residents can no longer watch Pornhub after the company retaliated against a new law requiring the site to verify ages
Lawmakers in Utah passed the law to prevent minors from accessing adult content, but Pornhub said the legislation is not the answer to “protecting” children
Utah visitors who logged into the cheeky site stumbled upon an unexpected website message that read, “As you may know, your elected officials in Utah require us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website.
“While security and compliance are paramount to our mission, giving your identity card every time you want to visit an adult platform and in effect putting children and your privacy at risk is not the most effective solution to protect our users brings. ‘
The company claimed the new law was not appropriate and that Pornhub had security measures in place to prevent minors from accessing content. Fox 13 reported.
Pornhub further emphasized that a better security measure would be to implement website restrictions on minors’ devices to prevent them from logging into risky sites.
Utahns were urged by the adult site to contact state leaders to have the law overturned.
“We believe the best and most effective solution to protect both children and adults 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 provided, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah.”
The company claimed the new law was not appropriate and that PornHub had security measures in place to prevent minors from accessing content. Pictured: Utah City Creek Center and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Bill sponsor Senator Todd Weiler believes Pornhub will eventually comply
The new law comes months after Louisiana enacted a similar law in January requiring users to submit state IDs to verify their age before accessing adult sites.
Pornhub is currently the only site that requires visitors to verify their age through the LA Wallet app, a Louisiana state driver’s license digital wallet.
The law, known as Act 440, allows porn sites to be sued for damages resulting from a minor’s access to such content and is an unusually harsh step in a series of government actions in the name of child safety.
A new law in Louisiana makes it illegal for porn sites to publish or distribute content deemed “harmful to minors” without installing age verification
Due to the law, Pornhub now requires Louisiana users to verify their age through a third-party identity verification site
An adult entertainment expert from the Free Speech Coalition argued that conditions in Utah differ from those in Louisiana because the landlocked state does not have a digital identity card to verify information.
“Utah’s age verification law goes into effect on May 3, but there is no clear way to comply,” Mike Stabile told the news outlet.
“Utah’s digital ID does not currently allow online verification, so many adult sites are planning to block all visitors from the state.”
Meanwhile, bill sponsor Sen. Todd Weiler told the news outlet that he believes Pornhub will eventually “comply.”
“They abide by LA law, which is essentially the same. So I expect they will eventually meet Utah’s as well,” he told the news outlet.