Pornhub exits this US state after being sued

Pornhub has stopped working in another US state. In a reply to Texas’ online age verification law, the adult site has been disabled in the state. According to a report by The Verge, the site is now displaying a message to users in Texas that asks them to to provide an ID to access the adult website. Earlier, Pornhub noted that this rule “is not an effective solution for protecting users online.”

Texas’ law for adult websites
In 2023, Texas implemented a previously blocked age verification law (HB 1181) that required users to upload photos of their government IDs (or use another third-party verification service) to access a pornographic website.

The law also requires porn sites to display health warnings that claim porn impairs “human brain development,” as well as other unproven issues.


In February, Texas sued Pornhub’s parent company Aylo, alleging that Pornhub failed to comply with the new law.

This isn’t the first time for Pornhub to disable its site in protest of age verification requirements. In 2023, the adult platform blocked access to its site in several other US states including — Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas and Utah. The site also stopped working in North Carolina and Montana in January.

Read what Pornhub has to say
In a notice to users (seen by The Verge), Pornhub said: “As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you to access our website. Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also the most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors.”

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Pornhub has also argued that on-device age verification is “the only effective solution for protecting minors and adults alike.” This process may involve using facial recognition or other methods to verify a user’s age locally on their device.

In an emailed statement to The Verge, Alex Kekesi, Aylo’s vice president of brand and community wrote: “Unfortunately the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, it will inevitably reduce content creators’ ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it.”