Pornhub would rather close shop than introduce a user age verification system? This is the strategy adopted byr the world leader in free online pornography in some conservative US states. A way for the site to protest against these laws which favor “irresponsible platforms”.
For several months, pornographic sites have faced an unprecedented outcry in the United States, but also in France where the State is preparing to crack down from 2023 to impose verification of the age of users. The idea being to prevent minors from accessing this adult content.
In the country of Uncle Sam, the state of Louisiana was the first to draw its legal arsenal against PornHub and others by forcing X platforms to establish a system for verifying the age of users. From now on, visitors must provide official identification such as a driver’s license or the like to prove their age.
Pornhub would rather close shop than verify age
Similar measures have been adopted in Utah, then more recently in Mississippi and Virginia. At first, Pornhub complied with the demands made, at least in Louisiana. Very quickly, the platform has seen a spectacular drop in traffic, around 80%! As a result, the adult site preferred to close shop in Louisiana, but also in all the states mentioned above, rather than establishing an effective age barrier.
Note that this blocking of services concerns Pornhub, but also all X sites belonging to MindGeek, the parent company. RedTube is also affected for example. For the company, these closures were announced in protest against the “unfair” application of these new laws.
These laws will benefit irresponsible X sites according to PornHub
According to her, sites that enforce these rules will lose traffic to “irresponsible platforms that break the law, don’t take user safety seriously, and often don’t even moderate content.”
On this last point, Pornhub has never been an example of moderation. We remember the controversy caused by the publication of an article from the New York Times in 2020. The paper denounced the presence of child pornography videos on the site. Soon after, Pornhub took drastic measures, which resulted in the removal of millions of videos.
Nevertheless, Pornhub is right. Other less “visitable” X sites are bound to recover lost traffic from Pornhub and other major adult sites. In the United States, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has spoken out against age verification requirements, comparing them to “monitoring systems” which cause serious security issues for users.
“Once information is shared to verify age, there is no way for a website visitor to be certain that the data they submit will not be retained and used by the website, or shared subsequently or even sold”, the association said last March.
Source: The Verge