‘Fantastic News’: Top Porn Site Blocks Utah Access in Protest of Age-Verification Law

The world’s largest pornography website, P*rnhub, has blocked Utahns from accessing its platform in protest of a new state law requiring visitors to verify their ages before entering the site.

Anyone visiting the smut site with a Utah-based IP address is met with a message, stating the platform has “made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah,” Axios reported.

WIN: Today P*rnhub is no longer accessible in the state of Utah.

Why?

Because they refuse to verify that children aren’t using their crime scene website.

Why?

Because child protection hurts the bottom line.

(Hear it from their own mouth.)#Traffickinghub pic.twitter.com/hCJxj6luhA

— Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) May 2, 2023

The decision by P*rnhub comes weeks after state lawmakers passed legislation requiring websites with pornographic content to verify visitors’ ages before allowing them to access the platforms. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed the bill into law in late March. It takes effect Tuesday, May 2.

“A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of an individual attempting to access the material,” the new law states in part.

In addition to the brief message on the website’s landing page, P*rnhub visitors in Utah are met with a video from pornographic actor Cherie DeVille, who argues the attempt to keep minors from visiting the platform is actually an attack on users’ privacy.

“As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,” she said. “While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users and, in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.”

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Contrary to the intended goal of P*rnhub’s protest, several social media users are celebrating the move.

“Utah is better for it,” wrote New York Times columnist David French.

Blogger Ammon Crossette described the decision as “fantastic news.”

“Good,” added writer Raheem Kassam. “Let this happen everywhere!”

This comes years after Utah, in 2016, declared pornography consumption a “public health crisis,” a description that has since been adopted by other states around the country.

For years, many have claimed Utah — where around 60% of the population is Mormon — is leading the way in pornography consumption. That statistic, however, is based on one dated and potentially flawed analysis from 2009.

More recent data compiled by P*rnhub in 2014 found Utah actually comes in at No. 40 in page views per capita as compared to other states, which tracks with the findings of dozens of studies showing religious affiliation often correlates to far lower rates of pornography consumption.

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