Turning Point USA

PornHub, the largest free pornography website, has blocked access to its website in Utah ahead of a new age verification law requiring porn sites to reasonably verify the age of users.

“The vast majority of Utahns would agree that companies should be held responsible for knowingly distributing pornography to minors. 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.”

Utah Governor Spencer Cox

Senate Bill 287, went into effect Wednesday, May 3, just one day after PornHub shut down its website in the state. The company decided that requiring users to verify their age before viewing explicit material would be too cumbersome — so if children can’t view it, no one can. The law requires adult content websites to verify the age of users through any of the following methods:

• “[T]hrough an independent, third-party age verification service that compares the personal information entered by the individual who is seeking access to the material that is available from a commercially available database.”

• “[An] aggregate of databases, that is regularly used by government agencies and businesses for the purpose of age and identity verification.”

• “[A]ny commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of the person attempting to access the material.”

Users who attempted to access the website on Wednesday were greeted with a message from adult film creator, Cherie DeVille, who explained why the company chose to block Utah users from the site. “While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users,” DeVille said. “In fact, it’ll put children and your privacy at risk.”

The bill specifically states that companies or entities providing age verification by use of ID cards, “shall not retain any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material,” to protect the identity of the user. Any company that knowingly violates the privacy of a user would be subject to fees as ordered by a court.

A similar law requiring age verification in Louisiana went into effect earlier this year, which PornHub has complied with. According to the Washington Street Journal, “Pornhub’s traffic has dropped 80% since the age-verification system went into effect in Louisiana.”

The average age of first porn exposure has dropped to just 11 years old in recent years. There are several developmental issues that arise from early or often sexual exposure — even for adults. Despite obvious problems, like the fact that the porn industry allows people to sell their bodies as products, essentially legalizing prostitution as long as there’s a camera, the need to protect children may be the most convincing argument against porn yet.

The American Civil Liberties Union claimed that the law is “unconstitutional” and further stated, “Requiring adults to verify their ages — and expose their identities – before accessing certain websites will inevitably deter them from going to those sites.”

Porn-apologists often use “freedom of expression” under the First Amendment as an excuse for creating, distributing, and engaging with degenerate and obscene material. Despite their best efforts, this argument often falls flat when current federal laws concerning obscenity are taken into consideration.

“Federal law currently holds that what can be defined as obscenity ‘is not protected under First Amendment rights to free speech, and violations of federal obscenity laws are criminal offenses.’ Additionally, federal law ‘strictly prohibits the distribution of obscene matter to minors. Any transfer or attempt to transfer such material to a minor under the age of 16, including over the Internet, is punishable under federal law.'”

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Like any other kind of addict, porn users in the state who had access to their drug of choice blocked began desperately looking for a way to satisfy their compulsion. Business Insider reported that Google searches for VPNs, which conceal user location information, spiked in the past 48 hours, becoming the most searched term in the state.

In 2021, Utah Governor Cox signed a law requiring all devices sold in the state to come equipped with a feature that is able to block all forms of pornography. This feature can be deactivated, but each device would be sold with it activated by default. Both laws draw a hard line in terms of protecting Utah residents from the negative effects of porn consumption.