Pornhub cuts off access to site in Texas over age verification law

AUSTIN (KXAN) — People living in Texas can no longer log into and watch videos on Pornhub because the popular adult entertainment website cut off access to the state over an objection to its age verification law.

In a lengthy message posted on Thursday, the site explained its decision to "completely disable access" to Texas and slammed the law in question as "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous." House Bill 1181, which went into effect on Sept. 1 last year, requires age verification measures to protect minors from being exposed to obscene materials.

"Not only will it not actually protect children," the Pornhub message read, "but it will also inevitably reduce content creators' ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it."

Pornhub joined a federal lawsuit against Texas leaders last summer alongside a coalition of other adult sites. They sought to block the enforcement of this new law that would require users to send their government-issued identification to adult websites.

In Nov. 2023, the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals appealed an injunction after the pornography companies' lawsuit to prevent HB 1181 from going into effect. The order allowed the Office of the Attorney General to enforce the new law.

However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced in February his office is suing Aylo Global Entertainment, which owns Pornhub and other sites. Paxton sought an injunction against the company to require appropriate age verification safeguards and potentially millions of dollars in civil penalties, a news release explained.

The message posted Thursday on the Pornhub website criticized the state's approach to achieving safety with this law. It instead called for "device-based age verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy" and asked users to contact their lawmakers to push for this.

"We believe that the only effective solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users' age on their device and to either deny or allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that verification," the letter read.

Texas Sen. Angela Paxton, the McKinney Republican who introduced this legislation, shared an article on X about Pornhub shutting down access in Texas.

"My bill created an age verification requirement for online pornography websites in Texas to protect minors from accessing their harmful content," Paxton wrote. "After insistent fighting against it, the pornography industry is being forced to comply with the law."