In February 2024, I wrote an article entitled "How Do You Stop Kids Watching Porn?" exploring the emerging trend of state legislation requiring age verification for access to pornographic websites - and looking at why PornHub was switching its service off in those states. Much has happened since then, with more states introducing and passing such laws, court challenges continuing, and even some legislators pushing for total bans on pornography. Let's examine where things stand today and look at some promising approaches to protecting minors while respecting constitutional rights.
Oklahoma's Extreme Approach: Criminalizing All Pornography
Perhaps the most radical recent development comes from Oklahoma, where State Senator Dusty Deevers (it might sound like a porn name, but no, it's actually his real name) has introduced Senate Bill 593, which seeks to criminalize all pornography. The bill would make it illegal to "photograph, act in, pose for, model for, print, sell, offer for sale, give away, exhibit, publish, offer to publish, or otherwise distribute, display, or exhibit" any material deemed "obscene" or classified as "unlawful pornography."
This legislation defines "unlawful pornography" broadly, including any visual depiction of sexual intercourse, and even "lewd" nudity for the purpose of sexual stimulation of the viewer. Violations would constitute a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, a minimum fine of $2,000, or both.
More concerning for the adult entertainment industry, the bill establishes severe penalties for "trafficking pornography," which it defines as "the production, sale, distribution, transportation, or dissemination of pornography through any medium, including physical or electronic means, for financial or material gain or with intent to exploit." Such offenses would be punishable by 15 to 40 years in prison and fines up to $500,000.
Senator Deevers, a Baptist preacher turned Republican legislator, has framed his legislative agenda as "aimed at restoring moral sanity." In a press release, he stated: "We can and should imagine and move toward a society that celebrates virtue in the public square rather than vice. We can restore normalcy, decency, and morality; we can protect the most vulnerable, restore a high view of marriage, and shield children from explicit material that can warp their innocent minds."
This is not Deevers' only controversial legislation. He also introduced SB 456 that would have charged Oklahoma women who get abortions with murder (which proved too extreme even for Oklahoma and was swiftly killed in committee) along with a raft of bills to promote traditional family structures, or as he puts it, ". . . for pushing back against the moral decay foisted upon Oklahoma by the far-left’s march through our institutions to destroy the moral foundations upon which the United States and Christian Civilization had long rested."
Most legal experts consider SB 593 unlikely to pass constitutional muster given the Supreme Court's well-established precedents on protected speech and obscenity standards. However, it represents an extreme position in the broader national conversation about regulating online pornography.
The Current Landscape of Age Verification Laws
While Oklahoma's approach represents the far end of the regulatory spectrum, many states have taken a more measured approach by requiring age verification for access to websites containing pornographic content.
In my previous piece I explained the origin of the model bill first passed by Louisiana in 2022 and the bill continues to spread around the country, with some variations. At the time, 8 states had passed age verification laws. As of January 2025, nineteen states have now passed some kind of legislation: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. All of these states except Georgia have already implemented their laws.
Most requirements typically apply to websites where at least one-third of the content could be considered "harmful to minors.". The definition of what constitutes harm varies by state, though most laws clearly encompass pornographic websites. Search engines, cloud storage, and news sites are generally exempted, but questions remain about user-generated content platforms like OnlyFans and streaming services.
The verification methods also vary, with most requiring some form of government-issued ID verification. Louisiana uses a state-specific app called LA Wallet that requires a Louisiana driver's license or state ID. Websites that fail to implement proper verification systems can face significant penalties, including civil liability for damages to minors who access their content and substantial fines.
For instance, in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued adult websites XHamster and Chaturbate, seeking $1.67 million and $1.78 million in fines, respectively, for failing to implement age verification. Some newer legislative proposals are even more severe, with bills in states like Illinois and Indiana including potential criminal charges for non-compliance.
The Pornhub Response
In response to these laws, Aylo (formerly MindGeek), the parent company of Pornhub, has chosen to block access to its websites in states with age verification requirements rather than implement the verification systems. The company cites several concerns about the laws:
- Privacy risks associated with collecting and storing sensitive personal information
- Data security vulnerabilities that could expose users' viewing habits and identities
- The patchwork nature of regulations across states, making compliance challenging
- The potential shift of users to less reputable, potentially illegal sites that don't implement verification
- Constitutional questions about free speech restrictions
Pornhub argues that blocking these states is a protest against how the verification systems have been implemented, rather than the principle of age verification itself which Pornhub supports. In an informational video featuring adult performer Cherie Deville shown to visitors from restricted states, the company advocates for a device-based verification system that would only require one-time verification rather than checking each time a user visits a site.
Louisiana is currently the only exception where Pornhub operates with age verification, as the LA Wallet service doesn't require websites to develop their own systems. Nevertheless, PornHub reports an 80% 'bounce rate' in the state - that is, 80% of visitors to its site leave immediately rather than undergo the verification. And, PornHub argues, they are almost certainly just going to other, potentially less law-abiding sites, or switching on their VPN.
Legal Challenges Continue
The constitutionality of age verification laws remains hotly contested. The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, has led legal challenges in several states, arguing that these laws violate First Amendment protections and privacy rights.
In a significant development, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Texas's age verification law, reversing a lower court's decision to block it. Similarly, in Indiana, the Seventh Circuit allowed that state's law to take effect while citing the Fifth Circuit's Texas ruling. This is seen by some as a sign the tide is turning against free, open access to porn and that courts are starting to prioritize child safety over free speech concerns.
However, the legal battle is far from over. The Supreme Court is currently considering an appeal challenging the Texas law, which could have far-reaching implications for similar legislation nationwide. During oral arguments in January there was no clear sense which way the court would go - they seemed to broadly support the idea of age verification while still having free speech concerns.
The Texas law is particularly extreme; it requires porn websites to impose a health warning that states: “Pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function." Forcing sites to express an opinion which is not their own raises clear free speech issues above and beyond the issue of age verification itself.
The court is expected to rule in the summer, and the outcome could well determine whether the wave of bills continues.
Recent Legislative Developments
Despite the ongoing legal battle, the movement to require age verification shows no signs of slowing down. Below is a map showing age verification and related bills introduced so far in the 2025 legislative sessions. Click a state to see more details on the bills.
Many of these bills adhere closely to the Louisiana model bill that started this trend, requiring commercial entities that publish material "harmful to minors" to implement age verification systems or face potential liability. The bills generally prohibit the retention of identifying information after verification and establish civil remedies for damages.
All the bills are still making their way through the legislatures (as of March 2025) with the exception of South Dakota's House Bill 1053 which was signed into law at the end of February
Some states are taking more comprehensive approaches, combining age verification for adult content with restrictions on social media access for minors. Florida's H 931 / S 1438 is a notable example, encompassing both types of regulations in a single piece of legislation which builds on the more generic age verification requirement in force from January 2025 (though facing legal challenge). The bill requires not only websites but also device and operating system manufacturers to implement age verification systems, categorize users into age brackets and require parental consent for under 16s downloading applications.
The rapid proliferation of these laws creates challenges for websites operating nationally, as they must navigate varying requirements across different states or simply block access in states with verification mandates. In the case of Florida's proposed laws, phone manufacturers such as Apple will need to ensure they can comply or face hefty fines.
A Potential Path Forward: The Digital Age Assurance Act
As states continue to pass a patchwork of regulations, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children has proposed a model bill called the "Digital Age Assurance Act" that aims to provide a more balanced and technically feasible approach to protecting minors. This model legislation has garnered support from industry players, including Pornhub/Aylo.
The Digital Age Assurance Act takes a different approach from current state laws by focusing on device-level verification rather than requiring each website to implement its own system. Though it does bear a certain resemblance to Florida's proposed new laws. It places responsibility on "covered manufacturers" – device manufacturers, operating system providers, and application stores – to:
- "Take commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to determine or estimate the age of the device's primary user" upon activation
- Provide websites and applications with a digital signal regarding whether a user is under 13, between 13-16, between 16-18, or over 18 via an API
- Obtain parental consent before allowing individuals under 16 to download applications (for app stores)
This approach addresses many of the privacy concerns with current laws. Instead of requiring users to provide identification to each website they visit, age verification would happen at the device level and transmit only the necessary age bracket information to websites without sharing personal details.
Under this model, websites making "a substantial portion" (defined as more than one-third) of mature content available would be required to:
- Block access if they receive a signal indicating a user is under 18
- Provide disclaimers about mature content
- Label themselves as restricted to adults
For websites with less than a substantial portion of mature content, they would only need to block access to the known mature content for users under 18 and provide appropriate disclaimers.
The model bill also includes provisions to prevent anti-competitive behavior by covered manufacturers, ensuring they impose the same restrictions on their own content as they do on third parties. This approach aligns with the statement in the bill's findings section: "The most effective and privacy-protective way of achieving age assurance is at the point of access, on devices themselves."
Finding Balance in a Complex Landscape
The challenge of protecting minors from inappropriate content while preserving adult access to legal material is not easily solved. As the Digital Age Assurance Act's findings note, "Creating a barrier between minors and mature content and online experiences requires a solution that protects minors while protecting privacy and safeguarding personal information."
Current approaches have significant shortcomings. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized age verification mandates as "surveillance systems" that pose privacy issues. Representative Mandie Landry of Louisiana, the sole dissenter when that state passed its pioneering bill, raised important questions: "The question is what is pornography or obscenity, who gets to decide, and how is that enforced? So much of that is in the eye of the beholder."
The experience in Louisiana demonstrates both the effectiveness and limitations of current approaches. When Pornhub implemented Louisiana's verification system, traffic from the state dropped by 80%. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that minors were protected – it may simply indicate that users migrated to less compliant sites or used VPNs to bypass the restrictions.
As Pornhub's parent company Aylo has pointed out, when only a minority of companies implement verification, users may switch to "other pirate, illegal, or other non-compliant sites that don't ask visitors to verify their age." This could potentially increase risk rather than reduce it, as users might end up on sites with more disturbing content or malware.
The Supreme Court's upcoming ruling on the Texas law will likely provide crucial guidance on the constitutional boundaries for these regulations. Until then, we can expect the patchwork of state laws to continue expanding, with varying requirements and enforcement mechanisms.
Whatever approach ultimately prevails, it will need to balance protecting minors with respecting privacy, free speech, and the practical realities of internet infrastructure. The device-level verification proposed in the Digital Age Assurance Act represents a promising step toward addressing these complex challenges, but the conversation about how best to protect children online while preserving adult freedoms is far from over.
As popstar Billie Eilish's comments that helped launch this movement illustrate, the stakes are high: "I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11. ... I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn." Finding the right balance between protection and freedom remains an urgent challenge for legislators, courts, parents, and technology companies alike.
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