A Louisiana law passed nearly two years ago has sparked a wave of similar legislation across the Southern US, significantly impacting access to online adult content. Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina are now among 17 states in the US where access to pornographic websites is restricted due to these laws.
Louisiana’s Act 440, introduced by state representative and “sex addiction” counsellor Laurie Schegel, served as the model for many of these laws. While the specific wording may differ, the core principle remains: online “commercial entities” publishing “material harmful to minors” face potential fines and lawsuits if they fail to implement “reasonable age verification methods.”
What is Louisiana Act 440
Louisiana Act 440 requires adult websites to use age verification technology to ensure that users are at least 18 before viewing content. Act 440 also regulates contracts between minors and interactive computer services, including prohibiting interactive computer services from entering into contracts with minors without the consent of their legal representative.
Faced with these regulations and aiming to protect user privacy, Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, Brazzers, RedTube, YouPorn, Reality Kings, and other adult websites, has opted to block access in the states that have passed this law.
Georgia’s similar age verification bill will take effect in July. Louisiana already requires users of Aylo-owned sites to use the state’s digital driver’s license, LA Wallet, for age verification, a system that has been in place since January 1, 2023.
Starting January 1, 2025, Pornhub website is blocked in these US states:
* Virginia
* Montana
* North Carolina
* Arkansas
* Utah
* Mississippi
* Texas
* Nebraska
* Idaho
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Indiana
* Alabama
* Oklahoma
* Florida
* Tennessee
* South Carolina
What the parent company Aylo said
Aylo sent 404 Media a statement about the age verification laws’ progress across the country:
“First, to be clear, Aylo has publicly supported age verification of users for years, but we believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy and effectively protect children from accessing content intended for adults. Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. 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 access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.”
