This story was updated Thursday afternoon to include reaction from Gov. Jim Pillen. LINCOLN — Pornhub, one of the busiest websites for sexually explicit videos, is less than a month from going dark in Nebraska. The company blames a new Nebraska state law requiring it to check the IDs of people...
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Pornhub intends to ban Nebraska users after passage of LB 1092
Aaron Sanderford
Thu, June 20, 2024 at 6:45 AM EDT·4 min read
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State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, left, meets with State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue. April 9, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
This story was updated Thursday afternoon to include reaction from Gov. Jim Pillen.
LINCOLN — Pornhub, one of the busiest websites for sexually explicit videos, is less than a month from going dark in Nebraska.
The company blames a new Nebraska state law requiring it to check the IDs of people using its site or hire another company to do so. Pornhub says it won’t assume that risk to its viewers.
Users of the adult video repository with Nebraska Internet protocol addresses are receiving warning messages saying they will lose access to the site on July 15.
That’s when Legislative Bill 1092, introduced by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, goes into effect. The legislation requires online porn companies to verify users’ ages.
New law required age check
The new law, passed 35-3 in April, creates liability for knowingly or intentionally publishing or distributing material harmful to minors on the internet.
Murman and other advocates of such age-verification laws say the laws are needed to protect children from mental health risks of exposure to pornography.
First Amendment advocates and others pushing for freer expression have argued that children today carry the internet in their pockets and will find other ways to access porn.
Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, confirmed to the Examiner on Tuesday that it plans to block access to its websites in Nebraska when the new law takes effect.
Gov. Jim Pillen, after the Examiner’s story published, issued a statement celebrating Pornhub’s decision.
“To the news that one of the world’s busiest porn traffickers will shut down in Nebraska, I say: ‘good riddance,’” he said. “This is a great development for the protection of our kids, culture, and values. Our kids already face too many threats from Big Tech and the obscene content industry.”
Nebraska would be the latest state where Aylo blocks users based on such laws. The others include Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Idaho, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky passed similar laws and will see users blocked over the next several weeks.
Florida’s new law goes into effect next year. Aylo hasn’t said yet whether its users will be blocked.
A company spokesman who declined to give his name said such laws require adult websites to collect information about users in ways that put personally identifying information at risk.
“Aylo has publicly supported age verification of users for years, but we believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy,” the spokesman said.
The group’s longer statement mirrored what many of the bill’s critics argued during legislative debate: that it addressed a real issue without paying enough attention to unintended consequences.
How the law works
LB 1092 requires companies to verify the front and back of a user’s driver’s license or state ID card and then get rid of the data or use a third party to do so.
State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue and other critics warned during debate that the state should not require such personal information to be shared with porn websites.
She said this week the requirement puts users at risk of being embarrassed by bad actors or fleeced financially by having their identity stolen.
Blood said Nebraska needs a data broker registry that would let consumers know who has access to their data, why and what they do with the information the companies gather.
“It’s clear that Nebraska did not talk to people who utilize this type of data,” she said. “You shouldn’t pass laws without appropriate research just because other states are doing it.”
People find access anyway
Murman, the sponsoring senator, said Nebraska and other states have stepped up to say “No more” to the porn industry. He said pornography companies lie about privacy and safety concerns.
“The reality is that companies like Pornhub rely on the business of streaming endless hours of graphic sexual content to minors and children,” Murman said.
Aylo suggested a better, safer approach to age verification — requiring it to be checked at the device level, on a phone or computer — to avoid transmitting personal information.
The company and other critics of LB 1092 said porn users in the other states where such laws have been passed still seek out what they want.
Many simply use virtual private networks to conceal where they are viewing the material from, or they get the material from darker, more dangerous places online, the spokesman said, adding:
“We are eager to be part of this solution and … collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective device-based age verification solution.”
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