What's New
PornHub is blocking website visits from Florida on the first day of 2025 in response to the state's new over-18 age verification law for access to adult websites.
On Tuesday, visitors to the pornographic video site in the state received a message saying: "You will lose access to PornHub in 14 days."
The site appeared to be saying in messaging that a requirement to provide driver's license details to gain entry will put everybody's privacy at risk.
Newsweek has contacted PornHub for comment.
Why It Matters
The decision to ban Florida from access to an adult video site highlights the difficulties of achieving a balance between freedom on the internet and the protection of minors from material considered harmful to them, as well as privacy and security issues around uploading personal documents such as driver's licenses. Both PornHub and the state of Florida say they are acting in the interest of minors in this case.
What To Know
Earlier this year, Florida passed legislation relating to children and their use of social media. The new laws, which will be brought in on January 1, 2025, specifies that age verification will be required for "online access to materials harmful to minors."
The new law also requires adult sites to offer anonymous and standard age verification for visitors to choose from, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
If a site fails to follow the law, they may be fined up to $50,000 per violation, plus additional costs, the outlet added.
Florida is not the only state that has approved legislation to enforce age verification on pornographic websites, as a total of 16 states have done so this year.
The Issue
"Did you know that your government wants you to give your driver's license before you can access PornHub? As crazy as that sounds, it's true," PornHub users were asked in a message. It continued: "We don't want minors accessing our site and think preventing that from happening is a good thing. But putting everybody's privacy at risk won't achieve that."
PornHub then encouraged its users to "learn more about device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer for all, especially children, while also respecting your privacy."
Newsweek has contacted Florida state attorney general Ashley Moody via social media for comment.
What People Are Saying
Spokesperson for Aylo, PornHub's parent company, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal: "To be clear, 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. Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous."
What Happens Next
From January 1, 2025, people in Florida will be unable to view the site, unless they have a VPN. Previously, after other states have been blocked from the site, the number of Google searches for VPNs were found to have dramatically increased, the Austin American Statesman reported.
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