What the US PornHub ‘ban’ is really about
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Age verification laws designed to block children from online porn sites are sweeping the US, Io Dodds writes. But do they actually protect children, or is there another agenda at work?. Nearly one third of U.S. states — with a combined population of just over 104 millions people — are now unable to access PornHub, the world’s largest pornography site.
That is because all those states have passed laws requiring porn websites to verify that their users are under-18, such as by checking their driver’s licenses, or else be vulnerable to civil lawsuits. The result is that online porn giant Aylo, which owns PornHub, RedTube, and YouPorn — has simply stopped operating in those states, arguing that it cannot comply with the laws without violating its users’ privacy.
Advocates say these laws are necessary to prevent children from accessing online porn, which they claim is distorting young people’s sexuality and normalizing sexual abuse. Critics argue that they are ineffective, burdensome, and effectively ban reputable providers from operating at all — as well as potentially being a Trojan horse for crackdowns against sexual and gender freedom.
At the core of the debate is a genuinely thorny technical and legal question: how to verify someone’s age over the internet without exposing them to cyber theft or government surveillance. Age verification providers are adamant that this is possible. But in practice, that question is overshadowed by America’s culture war — and by the rising tide of social conservatism that seeks to control and suppress sexuality itself.
