The pornographic website PornHub plans to add Florida to its list of states where access will be blocked starting next year. Gizmodo reported that Floridians visiting the site recently saw a warning stating, “You will lose access to PornHub in 14 days” due to a new state law requiring an ID for site access.
PornHub has already blocked access in several states that have enacted laws necessitating visitors to present a valid government ID for age verification. Florida’s legislature passed its porn ID law, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 25 as part of initiatives aimed at shielding minors from explicit content. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment trade association, is challenging Florida’s law in federal court, as mentioned in The Florida Times-Union.
Florida will be the 13th state to enact age verification requirements for adult websites, joining states such as Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska that have similar regulations.
According to the official PornHub blog, “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 most restrictive means of accomplishing [the state’s] stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors.”
The PornHub blog also highlights a concern for child safety and welfare, but suggests that the idea of using identification poses greater risks to user privacy and safety. It criticizes the Louisiana law for lacking a state regulator to oversee the law’s implementation, describing it as a “flawed enforcement regime.”