Why can’t I access Pornhub? What to know about Mississippi’s new adult content law.
When Mississippi and other states adopted laws requiring age verification on pornography sites, the sites took it one step further, completely banning users located in the participating states.
Mississippi enacted a law meant to “regulate pornographic media exposure to children” and provide liability to websites that didn’t comply. Gov. Tate Reeves approved the law in April and it took effect July 1.
States with similar laws include Louisiana, Utah, Virginia and Arkansas.
The law says that any website with more than 33.33% of content deemed “harmful to minors” must require verification via government-issued identification that the user is at least 18 years old.
In an announcement posted on social media, the adult content website Pornhub said they supported the new laws. “We’ve supported this for years,” the statement said. “We believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy and must effectively protect children from accessing content intended for adults.”
Pornhub took issue with the enforcement of the new laws. As seen in Louisiana, the larger sites chose to comply, but the content was still available on other sites that basically called Louisiana’s bluff. While in compliance, Pornhub’s Louisiana traffic dropped by 80%.
Like Louisiana’s, the new Mississippi law is tied to civil — not criminal — court claims. The tort liability gives users the right to pursue legal claims against websites that give minors access to pornographic content.
Pornhub argued that the use of government-issued ID would risk sensitive data for the user. “The safety of our users is our number one concern,” the site says.
Pornhub also took issue with the effectiveness of the law, “The only solution that makes the internet safer, preserves user privacy and stands to prevent children from accessing adult content is performing age verification at the source: on the device.”
Parental controls are already available on most devices.
This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 7:30 AM.
