Pornhub Ousts Utahns Over Age-Verification Law

Pornhub restricted website access to everyone in Utah in response to a state law (SB-287) that took effect Wednesday. The Utah law requires porn websites to verify users’ ages before letting them access content. Requiring ID-based age verification before accessing an adult website puts users’ privacy at risk, and requiring it “without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply,” said adult actress Cherie DeVille in a video shown to Utahns who try to access Pornhub. “As we’ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place.” Identifying users by device is the best way to protect children, she said. A separate Utah law (SB-152) requiring age verification for social media platforms (see 2303240035) also took effect Wednesday. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed the age-verification bills in March. "Companies should be held responsible for knowingly distributing pornography to minors," said Cox. "The very least we can do as a society is to ask companies to verify the age of those viewing the pornography they produce and distribute. This unanimous, bipartisan legislation provides multiple ways to satisfy that requirement. However, I fully support PornHub’s decision to remove their content in Utah.”