It will not happen within a week, a month, or a single day. It will have to be done on an almost person-by-person basis or, in this case, a state-by-state basis.
Pornhub announced that they will no longer be offering their “services” to residents of Virginia. Virginia, following in the footsteps of Louisiana, Utah, and Mississippi, passed a bill requiring age verification of people who wish to access adult sites. The law will go into effect on July 1, 2023. Pornhub and other companies will be disappointed by this. The statement was broadcast by WRIC, a Virginia TV station.
Our users’ safety is our top priority. Our solution to protect children and adults is to identify them by their devices and then allow access to age-restricted materials and websites. We have taken the difficult decision of completely blocking access to our Virginia website until a solution is found.
The station reported that the company had also created a message which appeared whenever Virginia users attempted to access the website.
Dear User:
You may be aware that your Virginia elected officials require us to verify your ages before we allow you access to our site. Safety and compliance are our top priorities, but giving us your ID every time you visit an adult platform will not be the best way to protect our users. It could even put your children’s privacy and safety at risk.
Platforms can also choose to comply or not if age verification is mandated without enforcement. This, as we have seen in other states in the past, only drives traffic to websites with fewer safety precautions. Few sites can compare with the Trust and Safety policies we have currently in place. To protect users and children, all platforms that offer adult content must adhere to any laws.
Safety and trust? Tell this to those women who were highlighted by The Washington Post, as well as other outlets, who sued Pornhub over allegations that the company was “a classic criminal enterprise” that profits from content that shows rapes, child pornography, and sex trade, among other nonconsensual activities. Tell it to anyone who has had their most intimate moments, or barbaric abuse, at the hands of another, displayed on a large platform. Tell this to anyone who lost a family member to porn, whether through deception, trafficking, or willing participation.
Recently, I wrote about the lawsuit filed by the Free Speech Coalition in Utah against a law similar to that of the Beehive State. Free Speech Coalition represents Pornhub, but the group hasn’t decided whether it will file suit in Virginia. WRIC reports Alison Boden sent a letter in March to Gov. Glenn Youngkin to veto his original bill. In part of the letter, it stated that “Adult material — including material harmful to minors- is First Amendment protected speech. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that restrictions on production and consumption are subject to the highest legal standard: strict scrutiny.”
MindGeek does not care about freedom of speech. MindGeek, its associates, and MindGeek itself are all about money.
