What just happened? Bad news for Texas residents who enjoy a relaxing visit to Pornhub. The state is joining the list of places that cannot access the adult entertainment website due to local laws that require porn sites to verify visitors' ages, which involves handing over sensitive information. Other companies owned by parent Aylo, including YouPorn and Brazzers, are also blocked in Texas.
Texas has been involved in a legal battle with Pornhub/Aylo since the company sued the state last year in an attempt to stop the age-verification law (and a requirement to include health warnings on porn sites), arguing that it violated free speech protections.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled against Aylo, citing a 1968 US Supreme Court decision preventing the sale of obscene materials to minors. As a result, Aylo has disabled its websites in the state.
Texas is joining Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Utah, Montana, and North Carolina in requiring porn site to verify visitors' ages.
Aylo – formerly called Mindgeek – says that the most effective solution for protecting children is to identify users by their devices and allow access to age-restricted material based on that identification. It claims that handing over ID card details every time someone wants to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting users, and will actually put children and privacy at risk and increase the likelihood of data breaches.
"Unfortunately the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, it will inevitably reduce content creators' ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it," said Alex Kekesi, vice president of brand and community at Aylo.
PornHub complied with the age-verification law in the first state that implemented it, Louisiana, using the LA Wallet app, a Louisiana government mobile app that creates a digital version of a Louisiana Driver's License. But it started blocking access in subsequent states that introduced similar laws.
"Sites like PornHub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children," said state Attorney General Ken Paxton. "In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don't want to comply, good riddance."
Aylo says it is now reviewing its options with its legal team and will continue to challenge the Texas law. Expect to see VPN downloads in the state skyrocket, as was the case in other areas where the sites were blocked.