Pornhub plans to block access to its website in Indiana and Kentucky in response to age verification laws designed to prevent children from accessing adult websites. The website has now cut off access in at least half a dozen states in protest of similar age verification laws that have quickly spread across conservative-leaning US states.
Pornhub says it’s blocking access to its website over privacy concerns around the new laws. The laws generally require adults to upload some form of government ID to prove they’re 18 or older. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized the laws as “surveillance systems” that could lead to misuse or theft of sensitive data. “This scheme would lead us further towards an internet where our private data is collected and sold by default,” the organization wrote last year.
Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, told the Capital Chronicle that it supports age verification but views the current laws as “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.” The company implemented ID-based age verification in Louisiana last year and says traffic dropped by 80 percent as a result. Aylo argues that the policy will drive consumers to websites that don’t follow the law and may otherwise fail to moderate their content.