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41 Percent of Americans Live Under Age Verification Laws Targeting Porn
from the not-a-free-society dept
Age verification laws saw an unfathomable renaissance in 2024. It’s quite frightening to see a political class of predominately far-right Christian nationalists implement the anti-porn vision of Project 2025 without President-elect Donald Trump yet entering the White House.
These laws coming out of state legislatures are scripted like how Russell Vought, a controversial architect of Project 2025 and one of Trump’s closest Christian nationalist allies, described in a viral undercover video revealing how age verification laws serve as a “back door” ban on porn.
As of this writing, nearly 139 million U.S. residents live in states with age verification laws on the books that specifically target adult entertainment platforms like Pornhub.com or xHamster.com.
That is slightly over 41 percent of the country’s total population. They reside in 19 predominantly Republican-held states, which President-elect Trump won during the 2024 Presidential Election. Virginia going blue this past election is the one exception, despite having their age-gating law.
Several of these states will also have age verification laws in effect on Jan. 1, 2025. States with laws entering force include Florida (HB 3), Tennessee (SB 1792), and South Carolina (H. 3424). Georgia’s age verification law (SB 351) will enter force on July 1, 2025.
The parent companies of platforms like Pornhub have geo-blocked or will geo-block these states.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Jan. 15 in a case challenging the state of Texas and its age verification law, House Bill 1181. That lawsuit was brought by the Free Speech Coalition and a plaintiff class of the operators of the world’s largest adult websites.
The Free Speech Coalition additionally filed new federal lawsuits in Tennessee and Florida.
In the lawsuit filed in Tennessee particularly, the Free Speech Coalition and its fellow plaintiffs – online sex education providers, pleasure product retailers, and fan platforms – not only highlight the clusterfuck of censoring protected speech but the fact that violators could face a felony.
How can Republican elected officials justify these laws when they say they support “freedom” and the First Amendment rights of their constituents?
The truth is that they can’t justify these laws. And most of them know that.
Considering all of this, the reason far-right folks are successful in presenting anti-porn laws as so-called “public health” or “public safety” measures is that they excel at fearmongering and manipulating their base into believing in bigoted and outlandish falsehoods about sexuality.
What can be done? Resisting age verification laws and other content restrictions presented by the far-right as “protections” for minors or family values is paramount to the activism agenda in 2025. Lawsuits and lobbying can only go so far. Age verification laws are not only unpopular, but urging grassroots-level organizing that transcends the political spectrum is what we need to see.
A perfect example of this can be seen among the coalition of organizations urging the Supreme Court to kill Texas HB 1181 through amicus briefs and in the representation of the Free Speech Coalition and the porn companies. Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union took up the case along with the Free Speech Coalition’s private attorneys due to the civil liberties overlap.
The Cato Institute, Institute for Justice, and Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and many other civil society groups in urging the court to rule against Texas and protect freedom of expression.
Here’s to 2025 and fighting Trump-emboldened far-right Christian nationalism.
Cheers, folks.
Michael McGrady covers the tech and legal sides of the online porn business.
Filed Under: adult content, age verification, porn
Companies: free speech coalition
Comments on “41 Percent of Americans Live Under Age Verification Laws Targeting Porn”
MAGA sure does have a bunch of self hating weirdos.
Such “small government”
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So small it could fit in your reproductive system, or in my case, my vial of estrogen
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“Doctor! There’s a government in my estrogen!”, the healthcare spin-off to the classic.
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Republicans want a government large enough that they can use it to force their will on others but small enough that others can’t do the same to them.
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… Most all politically active Americans favor BIG GOVERNMENT, including Trump & Republicans, because authoritarian government power is how one efficiently forces the populace to do things your way.
Most can’t even comprehend the concept of actual small government, because they have never experienced it nor heard its basics presented.
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“Trump & Republicans,” yea about that there turning against each other
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True. But how does that affect the progress of these bills in the US, let alone worldwide?
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so far it’s only been state bills and there still being challenged still
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Mhm, that’s true. Hope that’ll be the case in other countries too.
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👍
Republicans hate porn because they think men should be out raping women and girls.
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Republicans love porn, hookers and blow. They just want you to think they don’t.
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But they’ll gladly cut off their own access to it, apparently.
This timeline sucks.
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No, they will still have access to all the porn their little black hearts desire. And if they do not tow the line their illegal porn habits will somehow become public knowledge.
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Ssssuuure.
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One would be naive to think otherwise
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Silly human. Republicans don’t hate porn.
Republicans finance the sellers of porn for a cut of the take.
Who
” but the fact that violators could face a felony.”
But Who gets charged??
Laws in the USA, that are not FEDERAL, have little to No affect Outside their own state, at the points where the Servers/companies Are located.
AND even Then, there are things Legal in Many states that are considered Illegal, gross, Dumb, in others.
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You could have put just a little thought into the answer to that question and come pretty close.
1) Operators of small websites not under the control of a corporation, when they are within such a state.
2) Any web site that “does significant business in” such a state, meaning a) anyone that the state can name as associated with the web site – CEO, maintainers, maybe even web designers, and b) the web site is visible within the state, such that prosecutors can see it.
3) Anyone else that the prosecutors think they can lay a “long arm” hand on. Could include foreign nationals unwise enough to enter the country.
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Again: State laws. Texas can’t long-arm a European, and good luck to them for any victim not physically present in their state.
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If you cant Charge the Dealer, you charge the Consumer…
Just as they do with Prostitution.
OTOH, what percentage of people do you think have ever handed over age verification information to access porn? Okay, restrict it to porn-consuming people. Like the Great Firewall of China and all other forms of censorship sure you can complain all day that it’s unjust, that it shouldn’t exist, etc and so on, but at the end of the day they just don’t work. PornHub could geo-block the entire United States and Europe I don’t think it would appreciably affect their bottom line.
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With any luck, once these laws start taking effect in various countries, there’ll be a solid amount of backlash.
Given it affects a lot more than just porn sites in some cases, there’s no way this isn’t gonna generate noise.
So, back to ThePirateBay, I guess. Just like in 2010s.
But if we go back in time 15 years every year, we’ll soon get women stripped from their vote rights, and slavery in only 10 years.
Kids won’t need history classes again, they’ll experience history in real time.
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They always do, to both parts of that sentence. They may not learn from history classes, but there’s a chance of it nonetheless. Any chance not to repeat the mistakes of the past should be taken.
And the history they experience in real time is still real history. It’s just not the same as “ours”, even if/when the lessons learned are the same.
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take your doom posting else where
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Distressing.
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okay, and…
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Ensuring that minors can’t access online pornography is good.
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“Ensuring that minors can’t access online pornography is good”
As a responsible parent, I agree .. that parents should be performing the requisite ensuring.
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… said the person posting anonymously, which is antithetical to such bans/blocks.
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Yes, it is.
Now let’s do it in a way that doesn’t prevent adults from accessing online pornography if they so wish.
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Amazing that “This comment has been flagged by the community.”
TD readers literally objecting to child safeguarding!!?
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False dilemma. Opposing clumsy, rights-violating, security/privacy-violating laws and technical measures is not the same as objecting to “child safeguarding.” These measures don’t prevent minors from accessing porn online.
You know what does prevent minors from accessing porn online? Responsible parents. No new laws required!
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No, we object to people who use “think of the children” as a clarion call for getting rid of/weakening our civil rights.
'Positive portrayals of non-CIS, non-het characters?! That pornographic!'
Important to keep in mind that while actual porn sites may be impacted by such law those pushing for such laws seem to have a much wider definition of the term than most people realize.
One need only look at the sort of stuff that the book bans being pushed include to see that ‘porn’ is, on a fairly regular basis just code for ‘Anything bigots don’t like but can’t honestly admit to wanting silenced.’
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apparently even there bible is getting banned
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Well, until an exception is added to the law(s) anyway becacuse while that book most certainly does not belong in the hands of children by the standards they set for some strange, unknowable reason the people who are rabidly against ‘violent and/or pornographic’ content to the point that they support the government stepping in and ordering it blocked or removed have no problem with said content when it’s in a book they like.
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your talking about people that are already turning against trump and musk
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How does that stop the porn-bans though?
(Not exactly “bans”, just yet, but still.)
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How does that stop the porn-bans though?
(Not exactly “bans”, just yet, but still.)
i know your that doomposter just below this comment so i will tell you to doom post somewhere else
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Please only reply to me if you have something of substance to say.
You’re also not providing any sources to counter my points, let alone giving any arguments against my “doomposting” (which as far as actual doomposting goes is pretty damn mild I’d say).
If you want me to stop, give me an actual reason.
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“Please only reply to me if you have something of substance to say.
You’re also not providing any sources to counter my points, let alone giving any arguments against my “doomposting” (which as far as actual doomposting goes is pretty damn mild I’d say).
If you want me to stop, give me an actual reason.” ok rando no life ac you have no say ac
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You’re not even trying here man, buzz off.
And stop copying the entirety of my comments as your “quotes”.
Re: Speaking of laws, queerness, and overreach of targets…
see also: cisgender women being treated like transgender women in re: public restrooms for “not looking enough like a woman”
Transphobia is largely misogyny laced with queerphobia; any and all anti-trans laws are built largely (if not entirely) on that foundation. Such laws will always affect cis women almost as much as (if not more than) trans women.
This is going to sound pessimistic, but I’m expecting the majority of the world to have these laws on the books and in effect within the next two years.
Can’t really say if it’ll be erasing all adult content from the web, though.
Though I guess it might kill a lot of platforms and websites or, whatever.
I’m hoping the supreme court case goes well, for everyone’s sake. But I have to admit it’s difficult to find a light at the end of the tunnel here, for any kind of online expression that isn’t childproofed to hell and back.
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Oh, right. My own country’s gonna be tinkering with the idea too next year. Though only really targeted at platforms that use algorithmic feeds to promote content, or whatever.
One can only hope for an end to this moral panic soon.
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go take your doom posting else where
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Acknowledging reality is not, in and of itself, doomposting. Go spam some other site, for God’s sake.
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Mate, I’m not saying we’re fucked. I’m just saying I’m having trouble finding hopes for reducing the spread of these crapshoot bills worldwide.
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“Mate, I’m not saying we’re fucked. I’m just saying I’m having trouble finding hopes for reducing the spread of these crapshoot bills worldwide.”
you were sounding like one since doom posters are extremely pessimistic
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Yeah no shit. I don’t want to sound pessimistic, I do generally try to maintain an optimistic view about the future, but shit like this makes it difficult.
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i see
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We are fucked.
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Only if we keep acting like you and wail endlessly.
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It’s only going to get worse once Republicans are in control of all three branches of the U.S. government and opposition political parties are outlawed.
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Cool it with the doomposting.
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Quit your doomspeaking mate, I’ve heard this one so many times before.
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👍
At least you know.
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There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Its a train, though.
People will just use foreign adult websites that won’t bother using age verification the internet routes around censorship
I think Australia will be using faceid to verify young people,s ability to use social media
Where is Larry Flynt when you need him?
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Just a reminder: the “Free Speech Coalition” is a lobbying group, paid for by pornographers and associated groups, that was created to make porn easier to obtain, just like the American Beverage Association is dedicated to making sugary soft drinks easier to obtain. The “Free Speech Coalition” doesn’t care about speech in general, but only about porn and how there isn’t enough of it and there aren’t enough users of it.
It is NOT a principled free speech group, unless that principle is “more porn for everybody”! The “Free Speech Coalition” is not the ACLU, it is not FIRE, and it is not Pen America.
Techdirt in its “commitment” to accuracy, ought make this group’s direction and purpose clear each time it propagandizes for them.
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Alright MAGA-talking head.
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Even if that’s true, so what? Adults should be free to obtain any kind of legal pornography they want. That besides, porn is the canary in the coal mine of free speech: When censors want to ban speech, they’ll always start with porn because it’s easy to rile people up against porn and hide the mission creep behind “think of the children” bullshit. Just look at how many books with queer characters/by queer authors are being banned in libraries by right-wing shitheads who call those books “porn” even if the books have no sexual content.
Again, even if that’s true, so what? Porn is legally protected speech; it deserves the same protections as literature, videogames, and Kardashian-related reality TV shows. The FSC has every right to lobby for those protections—and for the interests of adult content creators of all kinds.
For what reason does it have to be any of those groups to defend the right of free speech for pornographers?
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Free speech for pornography is free speech for everyone. Never let peoples’ shallow and thoughtless moral prejudice convince you otherwise.
I don’t need to tell you that of course, but it’s a reminder to everyone else who reads these comments.
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And where in America are artificial sweetener-free soft drinks hard to obtain?
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I’m guessing that you are not in favor of pornography being available to anyone but those in positions of power and influence.
Why is this?
Is it the ‘religious’ cult that you belong to? Does your cult require the wearing of funny hats? Do you want to hide all the women so you do not have ‘dirty thoughts’?
bullshit
This is not a conservative effort, it is a bipartisan one. The woman who started it is a liberal and the gov who signed it into law in my state is a democrat. There is moral authoritarianism everywhere you look these days. The only politic is to control minds as well as artistic expression and public behavior. They are all fucking hypocrites and assholes and it is foolish to trust any of them. Case in point; a kid can now type porn in my state and get a site with far more abuse oriented content then Pornhub which objectively means that these laws, according to the fuckers making and passing them, are endangering children more. Arrogant scum on every side.
Age verification laws are another Republican Maginot Line, like the border walls. If you recall, the French built the Maginot Line (a series or fortifications) after World War 1 to repel future invasions from Germany. The Germans simply went around them. In the case of age verifications, it’s simple enough to use a VPN and/or LIE about your age. Funny that a party whose stock in trade is lies fails to consider others using them. I surmise that they don’t ACTUALLY care, as with pretty much everything else they whine about.
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VPNs won’t mean much if the tanking loss of users forces companies to go under due to a lack of money.