Pornhub ban now covers greater than a 3rd of US states | EUROtoday

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More than a 3rd of US states have now launched restrictions for on-line grownup content material, blocking entry to fashionable pornographic web sites akin to Pornhub.

From 1 January, 2025, there are 17 states with restrictions in place after Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee turned the newest to implement over-18 age verification legal guidelines for viewing porn websites.

Legislation geared toward banning under-18s from viewing grownup content material in these states – which have a mixed inhabitants of greater than 120 million – usually requires guests to offer state-approved identification, akin to a passport or driving license.

Critics declare that it is a violation of consumer privateness, with Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn dad or mum firm Aylo claiming that it additionally places folks’s private knowledge in danger. The firm mentioned it has withdrawn its web sites from these states because of the legal guidelines.

“Aylo has publicly supported age verification of users for years, but we believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy, and must effectively protect children from accessing content intended for adults,” a spokesperson mentioned.

“Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy.”

The Independent has reached out to Pornhub for touch upon the newest state restrictions.

The age verification checks have seen digital non-public networks (VPNs) surge in recognition, as folks try and bypass their state’s porn blocks by means of know-how that hides their precise location.

In the times following the pornography block in Texas in March final 12 months, searches for ‘Texas VPN’ elevated by 1,750 per cent, in accordance with knowledge from assessment web site SlashGear.

Further restrictions might be launched beneath Donald Trump’s administration, with the criminalisation of pornography among the many proposals of the controversial Project 2025 plan drawn up by the Heritage Foundation.

The conservative assume tank claims that pornography has no First Amendment protections referring to free speech, and refers to it as “addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime” within the 920-page manifesto.

“Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned,” Project 2025 states.

“Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”