Jacob Ogles
No one in Florida will be able to access Pornhub, the most trafficked pornography website worldwide, as of Jan. 1.
Officials with Aylo, the parent company to the site, confirmed it will deny access for all users geo-located in the state. An email from the company made clear the restriction will happen in protest of new age verification requirements imposed by a state law (HB 3) going into effect at the start of 2025.
“Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard and dangerous,” reads an email from Aylo. “Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.”
The new statute imposes age verification requirements on pornography websites and any other publishers of content known to be “harmful to minors.”
Lawmakers scoffed at the web publisher’s tactic.
“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 Rep. Chase Tramont, a Port Orange Republican and the prime sponsor for the age verification bill passed this year.
“To be clear, Aylo has publicly supported age verification of users for years,” the email reads, “but we believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy, and must effectively protect children from accessing content intended for adults.”
Pornography sites have previously restricted access to content in protest of similar laws. Aylo noted that Pornhub has also tried to comply with laws in other states only to see users in those jurisdictions flock to less reputable sources for titillation.
“We have seen how this scenario plays out in the United States. In Louisiana last year, Pornhub was one of the few sites to comply with the new law,” Aylo’s email reads. “Since then, our traffic in Louisiana dropped approximately 80%. These people did not stop looking for porn. They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age, that don’t follow the law, that don’t take user safety seriously, and that often don’t even moderate content. In practice, the laws have just made the internet more dangerous for adults and children.”
Aylo reiterated a position it held as Florida’s law was being debated, that age verification requirements should occur at the device-level, such as 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 technology to accomplish this exists today. What is required is the political and social will to make it happen. We are eager to be part of this solution and are happy to collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective device-based age verification solution. In addition, many devices already offer free and easy-to-use parental control features that can prevent children from accessing adult content without risking the disclosure of sensitive user data.”
Rep. Fiona McFarland, a Sarasota Republican, questioned the company’s sincerity in terms of Florida’s best interest.
“If a company can’t abide by Florida laws, then they can’t do business here,” she said.
18 comments
shut up
December 17, 2024 at 4:14 pm
stfu
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Michael
December 17, 2024 at 5:10 pm
Sports watchers already know how to get around regional blackouts by subscribing to a VPN service. I’m sure it will work for porn watchers too.
RonDesantisBootLifts
December 17, 2024 at 5:19 pm
hahahaha you get what you voted for Florida.
Butte Fooker
December 17, 2024 at 5:27 pm
Anyone hear about VPNs?
Iain M Corby
December 18, 2024 at 6:44 am
The use of a VPN by a child in Florida to access adult content will not give any legal protection to the website concerned. Sites need to do sufficient due diligence to know that the user is NOT located in Florida before allowing access without an age verification check.
Paul Passarelli
December 21, 2024 at 10:18 am
No, they don’t. You might be as clueless as Rep. Tramont.
Ron DeFascist
December 17, 2024 at 10:41 pm
It’s fine. Republicans don’t watch porn. They’ll be ok with this.
Chuck Anziulewicz
December 18, 2024 at 8:06 am
That’s a funny photo. I doubt if anyone watching Pornhub has their hands in the air.
FloridaDude
December 18, 2024 at 3:18 pm
I’m a floridian. K. Cool. First off, plenty of other websites are out there. Phub is just the industry giant.
Secondly, there is a porn addiction epidemic right now across the country. One other commenter said “you get what you voted for Florida.” – and yes, I got what I voted for. Next to ban all transgender crap and get rid of all teachers that enforce any gender pronounce crap in classrooms. Kids have no business in either of those things.
Secondly, VPN is a thing.
Thirdly, if Phub actually cared about age verification, they would have properly done so. But they don’t care. They only care about traffic and ads revenue.
Solid W for Florida.
JD
December 19, 2024 at 7:50 am
Yes, because the Christian Taliban should be in government.
It’s going to lead to tracking people’s habit’s for something nefarious down the road under the guise of “protecting children”. This was pushed in during DeSantis paving his way to a Prez run with culture war issues.
The kids are going to figure out VPN’s far faster than the adults (remember when they could program the VCR and the ‘rents could not?). And any lawsuits will again be a waste of our taxpayer money worse than a “war on drugs” was. “War on Porn”.
The Government needs to stay out of people’s homes and bedrooms. If it was in a public space, I’d have a different opinion based on community standards, but this is an invasion of privacy and tracking potenial.
So much for the ‘free state’ of Florida.
Bobby Jenkins
December 19, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Where to begin? First, watch your kids. It is the parent’s job to keep kids off of pornographic websites. The government should not restrict the rights of everyone because of some lazy ass parents. I have no idea why people like you are so enthusiastic about having the government babysit you and your kids and do the work for you. That is beta male crap. It is a welfare mentality.
Your third point is wildly off base. PHub did comply with the white-nationalist-evangelical rules in Louisiana. But because intelligent adults, who respect their privacy, did not want to give a porn site their government identification, the use of PHub fell. It wasn’t because most of the customers were minors. Also, porn consumption did not drop in Louisiana. It just shifted to the non-compliant sites and VPNs.
As for a porn addiction epidemic “right now,” that sounds like some bullshit you heard in church. Porn and sex have always been addictions, which you would know if you read the bible. There is nothing new under the sun, and porn has been around since ancient times. Heck, if you were a good soldier in biblical times, god gave you young girls to rape.
This law accomplishes nothing. It is virtue signaling at its dumbest. But hey, enjoy your W. Your rights just took another hit, and your government daddy just took another piece of your manhood, but hey, its all good.
FloridaDudesDad
December 20, 2024 at 3:27 pm
Sorry you’re addicted to porno but that isn’t everyone else’s problem. Sorry you’re uncomfortable with people having genders but that isn’t everyone else’s problem. Sorry you don’t respect teachers (I’m sure they loved having you in their classes) but that isn’t everyone else’s problem.
Paul Passarelli
December 21, 2024 at 10:24 am
How is this a win for Florida? Are there Florida VPN sites that are going to capitalize on the opportunity, or will this result in a floor of revenue/fees being paid to out of state companies that provide a pathway around this useless ‘fence’?
No FloridaDude, this is a *LOSS*, a bad one, a pointless one, I think they call it an unforced error. I*t’s a restriction on free speech, it’s a restriction on liberty. It’s a moralistic power play that is devoid of ethics and morals.
jjr23
December 19, 2024 at 1:48 pm
i get you want kids restricted but i not sending my drivers lisence on the internet a site in tampa already got hacked of millions of ss numbers get the photo id info
will destroy a persons id and its not just porn sights one legit education sites already covered
Paul Passarelli
December 21, 2024 at 10:45 am
Drivers license? Is that how they age verify? That’s positively ridiculous! No one should *EVER* send their official ID credentials to *ANY* internet retail business for any reason whatsoever!
It’s bad enough that banks & credit unions require it, but at least you can walk into the bank and know some of the people you are dealing with. Some might even be your neighbors.
In the old days, if you used a check at the grocery store the cashier wrote your driver license number on the paper check and put it in the drawer. But the difference was this was *BEFORE* the internet, before email, before scanners, the access to that info was 100% compartmentalized to the cash drawer & the store’s back office. Not so today.
What’s even more troubling is what/how would a business use State Issued ID to “verify” anything? Would they purchase lookup rights from the state agency? Well, that’s a back-door to give the government tracking info of whom is using whose services. How would the business prevent fake IDs from passing muster?
What about Credit Card numbers? Gotta be 18 to own a CC, but that doesn’t stop Little Chase from swiping daddy’s digits. Want to see failed age verification at work? Visit any liquor distiller’s site, any brewery or vineyard, any tobacco company. They all have annoying pop-ups to “comply” with state & federal laws, and they all accomplish *NOTHING*.
Simply put, age verification is a *PARENTAL* responsibility, not a government one!!! Let me say that again — age verification is a *PARENTAL* responsibility, not a government one.
I agree with jjr23, the government & the idiots that think this will accomplish anything are the ones that are too immature to be entrusted with pointy objects.
Paul Passarelli
December 21, 2024 at 10:15 am
““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 Rep. Chase Tramont, a Port Orange Republican and the prime sponsor for the age verification bill passed this year.”
Who is this idiot Chase Tramont? Seriously? Is he really that stupid, or is he a closeted member of NAMBLA or some other deeply disgusting sub-culture?
Anyone that says something that stupid, and takes a firm stand on it should probably be in the cross-hairs (aka reticle) of an investigative reporters microscope. He’s hiding *SOMETHING* even if it’s just a below-average IQ.
Anonymous
December 23, 2024 at 2:05 am
Don’t worry, we care about the kids. Now Pedo Fivehead will be your new governor but ignore that we are the Repungicans cus Christofascists love us.
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