Pornhub is firmly placed in the top twenty most visited sites in the world, but among its users there will no longer be those who connect from Texas. Those from the second most populous state in the United States who try to connect to the adult site will no longer be able to do so, given that Pornhub has suspended its service in the territory, following the imposition by Texas of age verification. system based on a document and not on a self-declaration which can be completed simply by clicking a button – as is the case in Italy and many parts of the world. An approach already observed in other cases. The law took effect last June when it was immediately challenged by Aylo, the company that controls Pornhub, YouPorn and Brazzers, with an appeal.
Texas law
The law requires companies offering “sexual material harmful to minors” to verify that their users are at least 18 years old. Users must prove their age by entering information from a government-issued ID or by providing sufficient evidence to confirm their age through other means, such as college ID cards, mortgage payments, or pay sheets. The law also required porn sites to display a controversial “health warning,” claiming that porn sites “increase the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and incidences of child pornography.” A week ago the decision of the Court of Appeal arrived, which rejected the part on the health warning, but considered the part on age verification to be legitimate.
Evacuation routes
Commenting on the court's decision, Aylo called the law “useless and dangerous.” The company's vice president, Alex Kekesi, said the rule “not only will not effectively protect children, but will inevitably reduce the ability of content creators to publish and distribute legal adult content.” Additionally, Pornhub claims that enforcement is too complicated due to the myriad porn sites on the web, predicting that traffic will only shift to platforms with looser controls and therefore illegal. Texas thus becomes the eighth US state from which Pornhub has decided to withdraw – along with Arkansas, Utah, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Virginia and North Carolina – following strongly supported similar laws by Republican administrators. Often in these territories there has been massive participation in VPN services, which allow browsing by connecting to servers in other states or countries, and therefore circumventing territorial limitations.
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