Floridians will be locked out of the most popular porn site next year amid a row over age verification laws.
Pornhub will ban people in the sunny state from accessing its website from January 1, as it has already done for a dozen other states.
The move is in response to a new bill in Florida that would require adult websites to verify the age of people using their sites by using government-issued IDs or similar documentation.
Pornhub said it does not want minors to access its site, but believes the law “puts everyone’s privacy at risk.”
The recent announcement brings the total number of blocked states to 13: Kentucky, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, North Carolina, Montana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas and Utah.
When users in the banned states try to access Pornhub, they will see “403 – This state is not whitelisted.”
Meanwhile, Americans who visit Pornhub are seeing ads like: “You will lose access to Pornhub in 14 days.
‘Did you know that your government wants you to give up your driver’s license before you can access Pornhub? As crazy as that sounds, it’s true.’
Pornhub will block access in Florida due to a new age restriction law that requires users to upload IDs
DeSantis signed the bill into law in March, with the main goal of banning children under the age of 14 from having social media accounts, a measure he said will give parents more power to “protect” their children, as well as to protect them. prevent access to adult material. .
Democrats objected to DeSantis’ measures, saying they infringed on the constitutional rights of minors.
Alison Boden, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a statement that while the law protects minors, it also “creates a significant burden on adults who want to access legal sites without fear of surveillance.”
“Despite the claims of its proponents, (the law) is not the same as showing ID at a liquor store. It is invasive and poses a significant risk to privacy,” she added.
Pornhub’s parent company Aylo has noted that it publicly supports age verification, but said that “the way many jurisdictions around the world have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard and dangerous.”
Aylo’s decision to block these states is based on privacy concerns. People would be required to upload a government-issued ID to prove they are over 18,” The Verge reported
“Since age verification software requires users to hand over extremely sensitive information, this opens the door to the risk of data breaches,” Pornhub said.
“Whether your intentions are good or not, governments have historically struggled to secure this data.
The recent announcement brings the total number of blocked states to 13: Kentucky, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, North Carolina, Montana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas and Utah.
‘It also creates an opportunity for criminals to exploit and extort people through phishing attempts or fake AV processes, an unfortunate and all too common practice.’
Kentucky lost access on June 10, while Indiana, Idaho and Kansas were blocked on June 28 and Nebraska on July 17.
Texas was blocked in March after an appeals court upheld an age verification law passed in 2023.
Residents of the Lone Star State who tried to access Pornhub were also greeted with a message: “As you may know, your elected officials in Texas require us to verify your age before allowing you to access our website.
“Not only does this infringe on adults’ rights to access protected speech, it also fails in strict enforcement by using the least effective and yet most restrictive means to achieve Texas’ stated goal of so-called protecting minors.’
The Arkansas law, which would have required parental consent for children to create new social media accounts, was struck down by a federal judge in March and a lawsuit challenging the Louisiana law is ongoing.
Opponents have argued that age verification laws for adult websites not only infringe on freedom of speech, but also pose a threat to digital privacy because it is impossible to ensure that websites do not retain user identifying information.
Such laws are considered surveillance systems by civil liberties organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The group warned that these requirements could lead to impersonation and other data theft.
“Once information is shared to verify age, a website visitor can no longer be assured that the data they provide will not be retained and used by the website, or further shared or even sold,” says Electronic Frontier Foundation . wrote last year.