Lawmakers want kids off porn sites. Will Pornhub cut Florida adults off as well?

The House appears on the verge of requiring porn websites to better verify the age of online viewers. But will demands lead to porn sites cutting many Floridians off from the adult content?

Lawmakers heard legislation (HB 3) on the House floor, where sponsors said the state expects more in the year 2024 than asking users to hit a button to verify their age.

“They just asked the question, ‘Are you 21 or older?’ Say ‘yes’ and they bring you in,” said Rep. Chase Tramont, a Port Orange Republican.

“That’s the verification that they use. They already know that the pressure is on for them to do this. They just do very terrible work. It’s just like if a kid is going to the store and the clerk asked him, ‘Are you 21’ before purchasing that alcoholic beverage, and they say ‘yes,’ but they don’t bother checking the ID to confirm whether or not that’s true.”

But some Democratic lawmakers questioned on the floor how the bill could be enforced and what its ramifications could be for adult porn consumers.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, noted a law in North Carolina led Pornhub to block any users in the state from accessing the site.

“I’m not a user, so it doesn’t impact me,” Eskamani stressed, “but I assume it impacts many Floridians.”

Indeed, that website saw more than 2.9 trillion visits in November alone, according to SemHub, which lists Pornhub as the sixth most popular site on the web, behind Facebook but ahead of Wikipedia.

Tramont said his bill is less restrictive than that passed in North Carolina and similar statutes in other states.

“I don’t see that happening here,” he said of a possible blackout by the porn site. That’s largely because the objection involves specific mechanisms North Carolina requires for verifying user age.

“We’re not spelling it out word-for-word on how these companies need to do this. There are other states that are a little tougher,” he said.

Rep. Toby Overdorf, a Palm City Republican, said there are numerous means available, from facial recognition to use of ID, that are available but which sites right now don’t use.

Much of the discussion on the House floor related to how the law could be enforced and whether the personal data of users would be compromised by the requirements.

Tramont noted sites already have a significant amount of sensitive personal data, including credit card numbers tied to subscriptions.