It seems like not everything is bigger in Texas… because the porn selection just got a lot smaller – with Pornhub blocking access to would-be users in the Lone Star State.
The porn giant isn’t allowing users to access its site because of new age verification legislation signed into law in Texas on Thursday – which took effect immediately… and as a result, Pornhub.com is no longer available if users have a Texas IP address.
The problem is… it’s not because of the State – Pornhub itself is responsible for blocking their site entirely.
The bill requires people to prove they are over 18 before watching explicit videos… but Pornhub is stingy – instead of just complying with the new regulation and requiring people to prove their age, they chose to block the access to people in Texas completely.
A new message appearing on the site for people in Texas says the company believes age verification infringes on adults’ rights to access protected speech and that the overly restrictive measure is not a real solution. Therefore, the company says it has made the difficult decision to completely close access to the site. So… no pornography for anyone!
The Pornhub team expressed fear in their statement that users would land on sketchy sites that don’t check for age verification… clearly not practicing safe porn browsing, from their point of view. From the outside looking in, it looks like they’re punishing all Texans for what their legislators enacted… which probably sucks for all the horny people who want to watch.
As for how the public is taking this… obviously, the reaction is quite divided. Some people are happy that it will be harder for children to access materials they consider harmful, while others are critical of Texas lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz and Governor Greg Abbott about the new law.
In any case, the matter left a lot of people tense… for several reasons, we suppose.