Just Desserts

In response to a Utah law requiring ID to access erotic websites, Pornhub has started blocking all Utah IP addresses.

Needless to say, many people in Utah (most popular pr0n searchis  "Mormon") are probably cheesed off about this:

Since Monday, Pornhub has begun blocking access for all Utah visitors, taking a strong stance against the state's recently passed age-verification law. In a video statement that now appears on Pornhub's homepage when Utah users attempt to access the adult site, Pornhub spokesperson Sharita Bell said the law was not a "real solution."

"As you may know, your elected officials have required us to verify your age before granting you access to our website," Bell said in the video. "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 its statement, Pornhub warned that "without proper enforcement," Utah's law would put children and privacy at risk by driving Pornhub users to platforms that choose not to comply with the law—including pirate sites possibly hosting illegal content.

"As we've seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place," Bell said. "Very few sites are able to compare to the robust trust and safety measures we currently have in place."

Until Utah can enforce the law across all platforms, Pornhub has warned that access will be restricted. Other MindGeek sites like Brazzers, YouPorn, and Redtube have also blocked access in Utah, Axios reported. To remedy the situation, the adult sites urge Utah users to contact their representatives and request that the state update its laws to a "real solution."

………

According to Pornhub, Utah's law mandating age verification differs from Louisiana's law in at least one meaningful way. In Louisiana, the state government created a digital wallet that Pornhub could access to securely verify state IDs. Because Utah has no such technology, Axios reported, Pornhub said it had no choice but to make "the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website" in Utah.

Full disclosure, the top search term in Maryland for 2022 was ASMR, because ……… I have no f%$#ing clue.

Link to full 2022 summary here.