A Pornography Blackout Is Rolling Across The US
Papers please: for millions of Americans, accessing online pornography now requires a government ID. It could have global implications for the future of the web.
Pay a visit to the website Pornhub while in the state of Texas today and you may be disappointed. Instead of the usual content you might find on a pornographic website, you'll get just a single video. It features a fully-clothed adult film star called Cherie DeVille – and she's discussing public policy.
"As you may know, your elected officials are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says in the video. Rather than asking its users to hand over photographic ID on every visit, she explains, Pornhub and its network of sister sites decided to simply block everyone in the state.
Texans aren't alone. As you read this, a pornography blackout is rolling across the US. In 2023, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Virginia all passed laws requiring age verification, and Pornhub blocked them all as the laws took hold. North Carolina and Montana followed at the beginning of 2024. Legislation in Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska sparked the same treatment in just the past few weeks. And with new laws scheduled to take effect, the shut-off could blanket the majority of the American South by this time next year. Pornhub – the fourth-most-popular website on Earth by some measures – may soon be blocked for one out of three Americans.
The stated aim of these laws is to protect children from accessing pornographic content amid concerns that it may cause harm by normalising aggressive or violent sexual behaviour and encouraging unrealistic expectations of sex.
To date, 19 US states have passed laws requiring pornographic websites to verify their users age since 2022, and lawmakers have proposed age verification bills at the national level. The move towards requiring ID checks isn't limited to adult sites, either. Other proposed regulations in the US, the UK, the EU, Australia, and parts of Asia may soon require age verification for social media and a variety of other platforms.
Proponents say it is no different from the ID check required to buy a pack of cigarettes, common-sense safety efforts that will work as well online as they do in retail settings. "It's very simple," says Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank and one of the key organisations advocating for age verification laws. "We don't think kids should be able to access the amount of pornography that they're able to access today."
But those who oppose the new rules say the laws are poorly designed and could even push people to darker parts of the internet, putting children and adults in more danger. They also argue that the repercussions of the new legislation could have profound consequences for the future of the internet and the freedom it affords. "Let's be honest, between social media and pornography, that's probably the bulk of everyone's online activity," says Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior staff technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
And while few disagree that preventing children from accessing online pornography is a good idea, there are some who feel there are better ways of doing it than a blanket enforcement of age verification rules.
Taken alongside the growing political debate about how best to regulate the online world and the technology platforms that support it, the internet seems to be at a turning point.
Porn: A polarised debate
In case a brought by a coalition including Pornhub's parent company Aylo and the ACLU this year, the US Supreme Court has agreed to review the issue of age verification. There's no telling how the court will rule.
In the meantime, access to pornography has become a mounting issue in the background of the US presidential election. Donald Trump's pick for vice president JD Vance has said in the past that pornography should be outlawed, and influential conservative think tanks are calling for a total ban on porn should Trump regain the White House.
If the age verification movement goes unchecked, it's possible that you could be forced to tie your government ID to much of your online activity, Gillmor says. Some civil rights groups fear it could usher in a new era of state and corporate surveillance that would transform our online behaviour.
"This is the canary in the coalmine, it isn't just about porn," says Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group. Greer says age verification laws are a thinly veiled ploy to impose censorship across the web. A host of campaigners warn that these measures could be used to limit access not just to pornography, but to art, literature and basic facts about sex education and LGBTQ+ life."
We don't just oppose it because of some lofty idea about free expression," Greer says. "We fundamentally believe it will make kids less safe by cutting them off from information about some of the most important topics in their life.
"The new laws simply look for "some quick fix for the internet", Greer says. "There's an important and valid discussion to be had about the impact of porn on our society, and platforms should be pressured to do more to protect children," she says. "But once you need an ID scan in order to browse the web, it immediately creates a barrier to free speech and limits people's access to information.
"Representatives of groups advocating for age verification, meanwhile, say the trade-offs are worth it, and these new laws are crucial to protecting the safety of children online as well as simple to implement.
"The porn industry is lying to you and being hysterical," Schilling says. Requiring porn sites to check users' IDs "is basic common sense. It's cheap, it's affordable, and it's been around for decades. It's a self-evident truth that kids should not have access to pornography, but even if it wasn't, some research suggests that early exposure to pornography is very harmful to children".
Over a dozen US states have passed resolutions declaring that pornography is a "public health crisis", highlighting the dangers to children in particular. Their concerns echo those raised by a number of international organisations including the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the UK's Children's Commissioner, who in a recent report on a survey of 1,000 young people concluded that pornography can normalise sexual violence and harmful attitudes among children.
The scientific evidence, however, is far from clear. There are a number of studies that suggest that porn can have a negative effect on young people's attitudes and sexual behaviour, but the extent and scope of those effects are hazy. One meta-analysis found many studies on the topic show signs of bias or a lack of rigorous science, making it hard to draw "valid causal conclusions about effects of pornography on adolescents". And despite widespread assumptions, studies have found little evidence to support the idea that pornography causes addiction in children or adults.
Opponents of age verification laws rules say the groups pushing these laws are evidence of a larger conservative agenda at play. Kelsy Burke, a sociology professor at the University of Nebraska and author of The Pornography Wars, believes the age verification laws are part of a wider moral battle taking place all over the world.