Utah wouldn’t be mistaken as a state that has a heavy amount of folks who visit Pornhub, but stranger things have occurred. However, Utah residents looking for some assistance during “alone time” will get a rude awakening as Pornhub banned state users from accessing their site.
As reported by local outlet Fox 13 News, Utah got on the wrong side of Pornhub after passing Senate Bill 278, which calls for all adult websites to use some manner of age-verification system for access. As of Monday (May 1), Pornhub visitors in Utah were greeted with the message “403 | This state is not whitelisted.”
“As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. 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,” Pornhub added in a message.
“We believe that the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification. Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah,” concluded the message.
A video message from adult performer and Adult Performer Advocacy Committee member Cherie DeVille greets users in the state instead of the usual aggregated content and trending videos on Pornhub’s first page.
From Fox 13 News:
“Utah’s age-verification law goes into effect on May 3, but there’s no clear way to comply with it — Utah’s digital ID does not currently allow online verification — so many adult sites are just planning to block all visitors from the state, as they did in Louisiana. Many of our members are concerned about the way SB287 was rushed through, with little attention to the technology or how it would be executed. We’re already seeing incidents of identity theft in Louisiana related to the law, and expect the same in Utah,” Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition (the trade group representing the adult entertainment industry) told FOX 13 News.
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Photo: Prostock-Studio / Getty
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