PornHub adult website blocks access in North Carolina citing new state laws
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — North Carolinians searching for adult entertainment on PornHub.com or any of its sister stations are no longer able to access the sites.
It comes in response to House Bill 8, a new law going into effect on Jan. 1, which requires all adult film websites to obtain age verification from users to prevent those under the age of 18 from accessing the sites.
A message on PornHub’s homepage explains that the law would essentially require users to upload their ID cards each time they want to access the site. They argue this is an ineffective way to police the site and could create privacy issues. Therefore, they’ve shut down access to the site altogether for all North Carolinians.
“A soapbox for me is not whether you should be watching porn or not,” said Bo Quickel. “What I do think is that keeping it away from minors, like any other drug—cigarettes, alcohol—if they’re not physically ready for that dopamine drop, they shouldn’t be ready for a porn dopamine drop either.”
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Quickel’s organization, Vigilante Truth, aims to fight sex trafficking. As part of that effort, he speaks publicly to young people about the dangers of consuming pornography.
“I’ve spoken to high schools, to entire populations of high schools of all their boys. The last time I did that, I asked anybody to raise their hand that had not watched porn in the last week. And only one young man did,” he said.
A 2016 study from the National Library of Medicine found more than 88% of surveyed porn scenes contained physical violence against women. That’s one of the reasons Quickel and state lawmakers believe children shouldn’t have access to it.
“When you get that in the hands of a young person who really doesn’t have any life experience to balance that with, you’re creating some really disruptive males as well as creating females who thinks it’s ok and think it’s normal,” said Quickel.
As part of their statement, PornHub suggests “the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification.”
Their full statement is below:
Dear user,
As you may know, your elected officials in North Carolina are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. 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.
In addition, mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply. As we’ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place. Very few sites are able to compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place. To protect children and user privacy, any legislation must be enforced against all platforms offering adult content.
The safety of our users is one of our biggest concerns. We believe that the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification. Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in North Carolina.
Please contact your representatives before it is too late and demand device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy.
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