Pornhub Blocks Access In Kansas Amid New Age Verification Law

The recent decision by Pornhub to block access to its website in Kansas highlights the ongoing debate over age verification laws and user privacy. This move comes in response to a Kansas law requiring users to verify their age by uploading a government-approved ID if they want to access websites containing content deemed harmful to minors. This legislation, signed into law by Governor Laura Kelly, took effect on June 27 and has led to significant implications for adult content platforms across the United States.

As a result of this law, Pornhub is not only blocking access in Kansas but also in 12 states nationwide, including Idaho, Indiana, and Kentucky. The company, which is under the parent organization Aylo, has expressed concerns that implementing such laws could jeopardize users' personal data. Many supporters of the law argue that it is necessary to protect children from inappropriate content, but critics warn that it could lead to unintended consequences and greater risks for users.

With age verification laws spreading across the country, Pornhub's decision to restrict access raises important questions about privacy and safety on the internet. As more states adopt similar measures, users are increasingly turning to virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass these restrictions, reflecting the growing tension between regulatory efforts and online freedom. The situation continues to evolve, and the implications for both users and content providers are significant.

Pornhub has blocked access to its website across Kansas in response to a new law that requires anyone seeking to access a website that has content deemed harmful to children on 25 percent or more of its web pages, including pornography, to first have their age verified by uploading a government-approved ID.

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The legislation, which was signed into law by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly after being approved by the Kansas Legislature in April, came into effect on June 27. However, Aylo, Pornhub's parent company, told Newsweek that implementing the new law would put users' personal data at risk, hence the state-wide block.

Pornhub is now preventing access to its website from 12 states across the Union in response to the passage of new age verification legislation that supporters claim is needed to protect children from adult content. In addition to Kansas, the states of Idaho, Indiana, and Kentucky were blocked in June while Nebraska is expected to be blocked when a new law takes effect on July 17.

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Texas became the eighth state which Pornhub blocked access to after an age verification law took effect on March 14, which followed similar moves in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia, according to USA Today.

In a statement provided to Newsweek, Aylo said the company was preventing access to Pornhub in Kansas to protect prospective users' data in direct response to the passage of age verification legislation.

It said: "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.

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Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide 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. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.

The new Kansas legislation requires age verification for any website that includes material deemed "harmful to minors" that "appears on 25% or more of the webpages viewed." For each violation of this law, the website owner would be required to pay a fine of between $500 and $10,000, and could also be sued by the parents or guardians of minors accessing its material for "an amount not less than $50,000."

Newsweek contacted the office of Gov. Laura Kelly for comment on Thursday via telephone and voicemail message outside of usual office hours.

Aylo claimed that when an age verification law first took effect in Louisiana during 2023, traffic to Pornhub fell by around 80 percent before the block was imposed, which they suggested meant many people had "just migrated to darker corners of the internet," making the overall situation more dangerous for children.

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