CV NEWS FEED // The “adult” industry giant Pornhub recently announced in a blog post that it will cease operations in the states of Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska beginning next month.
In explaining their decision, Pornhub cited the conservative-leaning states’ new bipartisan age-verification laws aimed at protecting children from internet pornography – which countless studies have demonstrated is extremely harmful to youth development.
The company had previously blocked access to its site in several other states due to their passage of age-verification laws, which have become increasingly commonplace throughout the country in the past couple of years.
The states include Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Texas.
In a June 12 blog post, Pornhub wrote: “In the context of these laws, age verification requires users to prove that they are 18+ to view adult content.”
Pornhub went on to claim that this “puts users’ privacy at risk.”
“It also creates a substantial risk for identity theft,” the company argued. “Age verification is a good thing, if done correctly,” but “the way these new laws are executed by lawmakers is ineffective.”
Later in its post, Pornhub tried to fend off the damage age-verification laws do to the porn conglomerate by deferring the responsibility of protecting children to “device” companies.
“The only viable solution that will make the internet safer, preserve user privacy, and stands to prevent children from accessing material harmful to minors is performing age verification at the source: on the device itself,” Pornhub’s post stated.
>> THIS MONTH: LETTER CALLS ON UTAH TO PROTECT KIDS FROM PORNOGRAPHIC APPS <<
The X (formerly Twitter) account of Unusual Whales, a popular platform for retail traders, wrote that lawmakers from states “who supported age-verification laws said the rules would keep children from viewing explicit content.”
“For example, the Kentucky bill framed pornography as a ‘public health crisis’ with a ‘corroding influence’ on children,” the account reported.
Like other states’ verification laws, Kentucky’s measure passed with the support of lawmakers from both parties. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed the bill into law in April.
>> MARCH 2024: PORNHUB CEASES OPERATIONS IN TEXAS DUE TO AGE-VERIFICATION LAW <<
Pornhub’s critics pointed out that the company’s consistent decision to leave states with age-verification laws instead of operating under their stipulations is telling.
“Why don’t they just do age verification?” one X user asked in reply to Unusual Whales’ post.
Multiple states passed their age-verification measures unanimously – with the support of all lawmakers from both parties.
CatholicVote reported last August: “The near-universal popularity of age-verification laws caused Politico to dub them ‘perhaps the most bipartisan policy in the country.’”
Indeed, a poll from last summer showed that 83% of Americans would support an age-verification law at the federal level.
>> AUGUST 2023: ANTI-PORN LAWS ARE WORKING AS PORNHUB FLEES THREE STATES <<
