Last Updated: July 07, 2023, 07:14 IST
United States of America (USA)
US states are increasingly going out on their own to regulate online activity, with national lawmaking all but blocked in a bitterly divided Washington. (Image: Pornhub twitter)
Similar legislation against adult website was implemented in US state of Louisiana earlier this year
Popular adult website Pornhub has taken the step to block access to users from the US states of Mississippi and Virginia over the recently passed laws mandating age verification for porn sites.
Similar legislation was implemented in Louisiana earlier this year. Instead of employing age checks, MindGeek, the Luxembourg-based company that owns Pornhub, has chosen to prohibit access altogether.
“We have made the difficult decision to fully block our site in Virginia and Mississippi, as we have also recently done in Utah. We are sorry to let our loyal visitors in these states down but have opted to comply with the newly effective law in this way because it is ineffective and worse, will put both user privacy and children at risk,” Pornhub said in a statement, a copy of which was posted on their Twitter.
“The only solution that makes the internet safer preserves user privacy and stands to prevent children from accessing adult content is performing age verification at the source: on the device,” the statement added.
Concerns have been raised by internet privacy advocates regarding the security of age verification tools, which require personal information sharing.
US states are increasingly going out on their own to regulate online activity, with national lawmaking all but blocked in a bitterly divided Washington. Texas and Montana, are set to implement related legislation in the near future.
Read more: After Pornhub Blocks US State of Utah, VPN Searches Shoot Up
Earlier in May, Pornhub pulled the plug in Utah over a law that requires visitors to the site to prove their age with government-issued ID.
Shortly after that, internet workarounds surged in popularity in the western US state as users sought alternatives to access the adult streaming platform.
Google data showed that searches for VPN access spiked in the state, becoming the most popular search item in Utah in the hours after the law came into effect.
Pornhub is instead promoting a “device-based verification,” where users could guarantee their age through their smartphone, computer or tablet.
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