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Kids get into all sorts of things on the internet, but no parent wants young children perusing adult websites, so a number of US states and several countries have implemented age-verification laws that require websites to confirm that their visitors are not minors.
Sounds simple enough, but many of us don't really want to send a video selfie or a photograph of our driver's license to all the platforms we visit, whether that's Discord or Pornhub. To that end, Pornhub's parent company, Aylo, has blocked access to its sites (including YouPorn and Redtube) in regions with age-verification laws.
Last month, Aylo blocked access to its sites in Australia in protest of the Online Safety Act, about a month after it did the same in the UK. They joined 23 US states and France, where Aylo sites are inaccessible without a VPN.
Though Australia's law was passed in 2021, age-verification requirements for "designated internet services," a broad category that includes websites, went into effect on March 9.
"Age checks relating to certain products have long been used to allow the community to protect children from things which might endanger their immediate safety or may harm their long-term health and development," the Australian government argues.
Age checks in the country can be handled in one of the following ways:
- Matching of photo identification
- Facial age estimation
- Credit card checks
- Digital identity wallets or systems
- Confirmation of a user’s age by their parent
- Using technology to estimate age based on relevant data inputs.
Aylo, however, backs device-based age verification, which would put the onus on companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft to check people's ages versus specific porn sites.
"Australia is following a similar approach to the UK, which all our evidence shows does not effectively protect minors, and instead creates harms relating to data privacy and exposure to illegal content on non-compliant platforms," an Aylo spokesperson says. "We continue to believe that device-based solutions remain the most realistic and effective way to protect minors online, and every organization in a user’s online journey plays a role."
Aylo points out that Apple requires app stores to verify a user's age when creating an account to comply with a Texas law. "We suggest Apple enable the screen time feature to limit adult websites by default, and make it such that the very same verification be required to disable it," it says. "This can ensure that only age-verified Apple devices can access adult websites."
In Australia, VPN use reportedly surged in the days leading up to the ban, The Guardian reports. Proton VPN, for example, moved from 174th to 19th place on the list of free iPhone apps in Australia while NordVPN went from 189th to 13th, according to Sensor Tower data.
The Australian law requires service providers to "take reasonable steps to prevent workarounds," which could include integrating "VPN detection services," but that's often easier said than done. (More on VPNs below.)
In June, Aylo said it would comply with the UK's Online Safety Act. However, Aylo later determined that the law had "not achieved its intended goal of protecting minors, [and] made the internet more dangerous for minors and adults and jeopardized the privacy and personal data of UK citizens."
As of Feb. 2, new users in the UK cannot access Aylo’s content-sharing platforms, including Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube, though "UK users who have verified their age will retain access through their existing accounts."
Earlier this week, meanwhile, EU regulators announced that an age-verification app would "soon be available for citizens to use, [allowing] users to prove their age when accessing online platforms, helping protect children from harmful or inappropriate content." However, security consultant Paul Moore soon posted on X that he was able to hack the app "in under 2 minutes."
"This product will be the catalyst for an enormous breach at some point. It's just a matter of time," Moore wrote.
Which US States Are Blocked From Viewing Pornhub?
In the US, Aylo has blocked Pornhub and its other sites in the following states in protest of its age-verification laws:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Wyoming
Ohio also has an age-verification law, but Pornhub is not blocked there because the law doesn't apply to providers of interactive computer services, which Aylo says covers its sites. Lawmakers there are reportedly working to close that loophole.
On April 1, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey approved an age-verification bill that takes effect on June 12, 2026. When asked if it will block its sites in the state, Aylo says it has "not yet announced our plans in West Virginia."
In Missouri, the age-verification requirement is a regulation imposed by the attorney general, so lawmakers are now trying to make it law.
In early April, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed the state's age-verification bill, arguing that it's an "intrusion into the personal privacy of Wisconsin residents." Residents would be required to hand over personal information to adult sites when verifying their age, and "nothing in the bill prohibits the transmission of such information to a third party, such as a data broker or the government," Evers says. "This is a violation of personal privacy."
Similar bills in Hawaii and Washington state failed to make it out of committee. In Michigan, bill sponsors pulled their companion House and Senate bills over concerns about data collection.
According to the Free Speech Coalition, another nine states have pending age-verification bills—Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—as well as Washington, DC.
How Did This Start in the US?
The age-verification battle in the US dates back to 2023, when Louisiana passed an age-verification bill. At the time, Pornhub complied with the law and saw its traffic drop by approximately 80% in the state.
"But we know that people didn’t stop consuming porn overnight because of this new law," Pornhub says. "They just very easily moved to pirate, illegal, or other non-compliant sites that don’t ask visitors to verify their age."
Pornhub argues that it has "robust Trust and Safety measures...to protect both the users viewing content on Pornhub from engaging with potentially dangerous content and provide a safe platform for creators to monetize their content and engage with fans.
"Therefore, these laws have not only failed at protecting minors, but have introduced further harm by displacing traffic to sites with few or zero Trust and Safety measures," it says.
So, as more states moved to pass age-verification laws, Pornhub opted to block access in those states, starting with Utah in 2023.
If you visit Pornhub in a state where the site is blocked, you're met with a message that argues the state's law is "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.
States argue that they're trying to protect children. "If a billion-dollar corporation would rather leave Missouri than verify that children are not accessing graphic sexual content, that tells you everything you need to know about its priorities," Missouri Attorney General Hanaway said in a statement. "We are proud to stand on the side of parents, families, and basic decency. Missouri will not apologize for protecting children.”
What Do These State Laws Do?
The laws are very similar, but here's a sampling of what they require.
- In Alabama, access to Pornhub was blocked ahead of an age-verification law that went into effect on Oct. 1, 2024, AL.com reports. Under HB164, adult sites must use "reasonable age verification methods" to confirm that people are over the age of 18 and display warnings about porn being "potentially biologically addictive" and harmful to "human brain development."
- In Florida, HB 3 requires adult sites to verify that visitors are 18 "using either an anonymous or standard age verification method." Anonymous ones "must be conducted by a nongovernmental, independent third party." Florida's attorney general can collect civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs, while minors can also pursue up to $10,000 in damages.
- In Indiana, SB17 went into effect on June 27, 2024, and requires sites that offer adult content to "use a reasonable age verification method to prevent a minor from accessing an adult-oriented website." Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita says, "Children shouldn't be able to easily access explicit material that can cause them harm. It's common sense. We need to protect and shield them from the psychological and emotional consequences associated with viewing porn. We look forward to upholding our constitutional duty to defend this law in court."
- In Kentucky, House Bill 278 applies to sites where more than one-third of their content would be considered harmful to minors.
- In Missouri, AG Hanaway used the state's Merchandising Practices Act to impose a new age-verification rule that requires platforms that host sexually explicit content to prevent minors from accessing them via age checks that use government IDs or another reasonable method. Failure to implement these safeguards will result in penalties up to $10,000 per day. Lawmakers are now looking to turn that regulation into law.
- In Montana, SB 544 requires sites to verify age by having people provide "a digitized identification card" or access a "commercial age verification system" that checks a government ID or uses some other sort of "commercially reasonable method" to verify someone's age.
- In North Carolina, House Bill 8 was part of a larger education bill that also covered things like adding a computer science requirement for high school graduation. But it also imposed the age-verification check for adult sites. It requires sites to use "a commercially available database that is regularly used by businesses or governmental entities for the purpose of age and identity verification or...another commercially reasonable method." Sites that fail to comply could face civil action from the parents of kids who viewed pornography or anyone whose data is unlawfully retained. In signing the bill in 2023, former Gov. Roy Cooper said those age checks are "important...to help protect children from online pornography."
- In Tennessee, the Protect Tennessee Minors Act requires sites to verify IDs once an hour via uploaded IDs and retain seven years of anonymized data on users who access the site, The Tennessean reports. (South Carolina's Child Online Safety Act (H. 3424) has similar requirements.)
- In Texas, HB 1181 requires adult sites to verify that visitors are of age. It was set to go into effect in September 2023, but Pornhub sued and secured an early victory. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed and got a temporary reprieve in March 2024, allowing the state to enforce HB 1181.
Taking It to the Courts
The Free Speech Coalition and a group of adult platforms, including Aylo, have sued over laws in several states. The Texas case made its way to the US Supreme Court, which ruled in Texas's favor in late June 2025, putting the brakes on the other cases.
How to Access Pornhub in States Where It's Blocked
When Pornhub was blocked in Utah, we turned to VPN services and connected to servers in Virginia and Utah. Upon navigating to Pornhub, we were greeted by the blockade message.
If you're affected by the ban, use the VPN app of your choice to connect to a server not in a location currently blocked by Pornhub. (Note that while this guidance can be used to get around Pornhub's embargo, it could also be used to avoid the very age-restriction requirements Pornhub is protesting. We can't advise you on the risks of trying to circumvent the law.)
When you switch on a VPN, your web traffic is routed through an encrypted connection to a server operated by the VPN company. That server could be in a different state or a different country from you. Because your web traffic exits that server, it appears as if you are browsing the web from wherever the server is.
So, if you're in Utah, you should connect to a VPN server that's not located in Utah, and then navigate to Pornhub as usual. We recommend that you also use incognito mode while streaming pornography to prevent the URLs from showing up in your browser's history and autocomplete options.
If you don't already have a VPN service installed, you can find one that will suit you in our roundup of the best VPNs for Pornhub.
Which VPN Should You Use?
Nearly all VPN services will let you specify the country where you want your traffic to appear. Some will let you pick down to the city level. A few let you see a list of the actual servers themselves, and their locations, and make your choice that way.
US-based Pornhub viewers will probably want to use a VPN server that's located in the US. We recommend a VPN that will at least let you choose servers in a specific US state. Do note that latency will increase and browsing speed will decrease when using a VPN, and that the impact will be more noticeable the further away the VPN server is from you.
PCMag's top-rated VPN Editors' Choice winner, Proton VPN, shows the cities and specific servers available to customers. It also offers an excellent free VPN, but your server choice will be far more limited—there are servers in the US, but you can't specify which to use. Fortunately, the free version has no time or data limit.
Other Editors' Choice-winning VPNs that let you select cities include IVPN, Mullvad VPN, NordVPN, and TunnelBear VPN. Note that IVPN and Mullvad VPN use a privacy-protecting account number system that requires very little personal information, and both will accept cash sent to their respective HQs for a nearly anonymous experience.
Max Eddy contributed to this story.