(Credit: Pornhub)
Pornhub will soon be blocked in Indiana and Kentucky amid a battle over the states' age-verification laws.
The states join Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Utah, where the adult site is also blocked, unless you try to get around it with a VPN (more on that below). It's also poised to happen in Florida, where an age-verification law goes into effect on Jan. 1.
Access to the site will be blocked in Indiana starting June 27 and in Kentucky starting July 10.
The Indiana law, SB17, requires sites that offer adult content to "use a reasonable age verification method to prevent a minor from accessing an adult oriented website." Detractors argue that it could have a chilling effect on free speech since people may fear having their identities exposed should a site like Pornhub ever be breached. The California-based Free Speech Coalition and a group of adult platforms, including Pornhub parent company Aylo, have sued, arguing that "laws like SB17 have effectively functioned as state censorship."
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, however, says "children shouldn't be able to easily access explicit material that can cause them harm. It's commonsense. We need to protect and shield them from the psychological and emotional consequences associated with viewing porn. We look forward to upholding our constitutional duty to defend this law in court."
In Kentucky, House Bill 278 is similar and applies to sites where more than one-third of its content would be considered harmful to minors.
At issue in Texas is HB 1181, which requires adult sites to verify that visitors are of age. It was set to go into effect in September, but Pornhub sued and secured an early victory. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed and got a temporary reprieve in March, allowing the state to enforce HB 1181. Pornhub responded by blocking access to its site in the state a few months ago.
As noted by CBS Austin political reporter Michael Adkison, those who visit Pornhub in Texas are now met with a message that argues the Texas law is "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous."
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"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 message adds.
Pornhub further argues that this type of legislation will only drive people to less scrupulous sites, which "put minors and your privacy at risk."
"This is not the end. We are reviewing options and consulting with our legal team," Alex Kekesi, VP of Brand and Community at Aylo, said following the Texas ban. (These bans affect all sites run by Aylo, formerly MindGeek—which includes YouPorn, RedTube, Brazzers, and more.)
This battle kicked off almost a year ago when Pornhub blocked access in Utah over a similar age-verification law. As more states adopted these laws, Pornhub blockades followed. By early 2024, it was also blocked in North Carolina, Montana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia.
In North Carolina, House Bill 8 is a larger education bill that also covers things like adding a computer science requirement for high school graduation. But it also imposes the age-verification check for adult sites. In signing the bill in late September, Gov. Roy Cooper said those age checks are "important...to help protect children from online pornography."
HB8 requires sites to use "a commercially available database that is regularly used by businesses or governmental entities for the purpose of age and identity verification or...another commercially reasonable method." Sites that fail to comply could face a civil action from the parents of kids who viewed pornography or anyone whose data is unlawfully retained.
In Montana, SB 544 requires sites to verify age by having people provide "a digitized identification card" or access a "commercial age verification system" that checks a government ID or uses some other sort of "commercially reasonable method" to verify someone's age.
In both states, sites are covered by the laws if at least 33.3% of its content is adult in nature.
How to Access Pornhub in States Where It's Blocked
When Pornhub was blocked in Utah last year, we turned to VPN services and connected to servers in Virginia and Utah. Upon navigating to Pornhub, we were greeted by the blockade message.
If you're affected by the ban, use the VPN app of your choice to connect to a server not in a location currently blocked by Pornhub. (Note that while this guidance can be used to get around Pornhub's embargo, it could also be used to avoid the very age-restriction requirements Pornhub is protesting. We can't advise you on the risks of trying to circumvent the law.)
When you switch on a VPN, your web traffic is routed through an encrypted connection to a server operated by the VPN company. That server could be in a different state or a different country from you. Because your web traffic exits that server, it appears as if you are browsing the web from wherever the server is.
PCMag-Recommended VPN Services
So, if you're in Utah, you should connect to a VPN server that's not located in Utah, and then navigate to Pornhub as usual. I recommend that you also use incognito mode while streaming pornography, to prevent the sensual URLs from showing up in your browser's history and autocomplete options.
I used a VPN to connect to a server in Utah and loaded up Pornhub. Instead of the usual collection of adult material, I saw the protest message from the company. This suggests to me that the reverse—being in Utah and connecting to an out-of-state server—should work.
If you don't already have a VPN service installed, you can find one that will suit you in our roundup of the best VPNs for Pornhub.
Which VPN Should You Use?
Nearly all VPN services will let you specify the country where you want your traffic to appear. Some will let you pick down to the city level. A few let you see a list of the actual servers themselves, and their locations, and make your choice that way.
US-based Pornhub viewers will probably want to use a VPN server that's located in the US. I recommend a VPN that will at least let you choose servers in a specific US state. Do note that latency will increase and browsing speed decrease when using a VPN, and that the impact will be more noticeable the further away the VPN server is from you.
How a VPN Works
PCMag's top-rated VPN Editors' Choice winner, Proton VPN, shows the cities and specific servers available to customers. It also offers an excellent free VPN, but your server choice will be far more limited—there are servers in the US, but you can't specify which to use. Fortunately, the free version has no time or data limit.
Another good choice is Editors' Choice winner TunnelBear VPN. This VPN is extremely easy to use and lets you select specific cities within the US and Canada. TunnelBear VPN also has a free VPN, but you'll be limited to just 500MB of bandwidth per month. If you post online about TunnelBear VPN, that cap can be raised to 1.5GB per month.
Other Editors' Choice-winning VPNs that let you select cities include IVPN, Mullvad VPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark VPN. Note that IVPN and Mullvad VPN use a privacy-protecting account number system that requires very little personal information, and both will accept cash sent to their respective HQs for a nearly anonymous experience.
Max Eddy contributed to this story.
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