“No porn” may be a popular New Year’s resolution in Florida, with the world’s most visited adult site going dark in the state at the turn on January 1st.
Pornub will no longer be accessible to Floridians from the first day of 2025. Disabling access is a result of stricter age verification laws across multiple states in the US.
Florida state legislation follows similar laws already enacted in Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, and other US states. The new law mandates age verification for adult content websites and other publishers of material deemed “harmful to minors.”
Aylo, a Canadian multinational pornographic conglomerate operating Pornhub, RedTube, Tube8, and Brazzers, has decided to disable its adult sites in states where new legislation is taking power rather than adhere to the new requirements.
While the company admits that age verification is necessary, it has repeatedly stated that the current method is ineffective, as users can circumvent it with a VPN.
The company also sees it as a dangerous measure, as it includes collecting high amounts of sensitive data from adult sites’ users, putting their safety at risk.
In the statement for Florida Politics, Aylo expressed the position that age verification requirements should occur at the device level, such as implementing requirements for smartphone manufacturers to limit access.
“The best solution to make the internet safer, preserve user privacy, and prevent children from accessing adult content is performing age verification at the source: on the device,” the Aylo email reads.
The conglomerate also sees tendencies in the states, where they comply with the laws of asking for users' IDs. The traffic dropped as users diverted to less reputable and less moderated sites that do not require verification.
“In Louisiana last year, Pornhub was one of the few sites to comply with the new law. Since then, our traffic in Louisiana dropped by approximately 80%. In practice, the laws have just made the internet a more dangerous for adults and children,” the company stated.
However, lawmakers are standing firm behind their decision. “The fact that they’ve chosen to shut down instead of complying to ensure that children aren’t accessing their site tells us exactly who their real target audience is,” said state representative Chase Tramont to Florida Politics.
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