TALLAHASSEE, FL — (12-19-24) — Pornhub announces they will geoblock the state of Florida starting Jan. 1, when HB 3, the right wing conservative controlled state’s age verification law, goes into effect. Not only is the GOP targeting gay adult entertainment, they are now expanding their war to include sex toys.
Parent company of Pornhub, Aylo, said…“Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous,” the statement notes. “Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information are putting user safety in jeopardy.”
“Unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws,” the company said. “This is not speculation. 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. Since then, our traffic in Louisiana dropped approximately 80 percent. 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.”
Thanks to the GOP’s war on the adult entertainment industry, Pornhub has blocked the following states from viewing its content; Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Now, effective January 1, 2025, Florida will be added to the list.
When users from those states attempt to access Pornhub, they will see a landing page with an SFW video in which Cherie DeVille explains the reasons for the content restriction.
“As you may know, your elected officials have required us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,” says Cherie DeVille in the SFW video. “While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users and, in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.”
While the Free Speech Coalition has filed a lawsuit to block HB 3, Pornhub isn’t taking any chances and are moving forward with their decision to block Florida residents from its network.
Article by: Keith Witchka, Staff Writer
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