According to The Texas Tribune, Pornhub disabled its website March 14 in protest after a federal appeals court upheld the age-verification law.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed that bill into law in October 2023 and Pornhub quickly sued Attorney General Ken Paxton to fight it.
Jonathan Covey, of Texas Values, tells AFN that Pornhub’s action was akin to throwing a temper tantrum. That’s because the courts have already struck down a portion of the state law that required porn websites to post a health warning about brain development.
“The gist of the bill was to implement age verification system,” Covey says, “but it seems that a lot of these companies, in protest to the enforcement of the regulation, have just started to disable access.”
The 5th Circuit ruling on age verification cited a 1960s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prevented the sale of obscene materials to minors.
Reacting to the appeals court ruling, a Pornhub executive called the age verification law “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous,” and complained it affects “content creators” and their “artistic messages.”
Covey correctly points out Pornhub agreed to pay $1.8 million late last year after federal prosecutors alleged its parent company, Aylo, knowingly profited from sex trafficking.
The company was accused of ignoring pleas from women who said they were coerced into performing sex acts on camera that were viewed on Pornhub.
“So this has become a very serious problem,” Covey warns, “and one of the main reasons why age verification was passed in the state of Texas.”
