Pornhub has disabled its site in Texas over its objections to a new law that requires the site to verify users’ age.
When accessing the site in Texas, users see the message: “As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors.
“While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, providing identification every time you want to visit an adult platform is not an effective solution for protecting users online, and in fact, will put minors and your privacy at risk.”
The message goes on to read that requiring this kind of age verification drives people to other websites with fewer safety measures in place.
It continues: “Unfortunately, the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, but it will also 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.”
Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, sued Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, to comply with the law, which was passed last year.
In a statement when he filed the lawsuit, Paxton said, “Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content. I look forward to holding any company accountable that violates our age verification laws intended to prevent minors from being exposed to harmful, obscene material on the internet.”
The state can impose hefty fines on internet companies that don’t comply. Fines include up to $10,000 per day for not following the law, an additional $10,000 per day if the company illegally retains users’…
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