Access to Pornhub, one of the world's largest video-sharing websites for adult content, has been blocked across Montana. This comes in response to a new law requiring those in the state to verify their age to access pornographic material online.
The decision was made by Pornhub itself, which said requiring ID verification to view its content would "put children and your privacy at risk." Consequently, the website is no longer available to the more than 1.1 million people living in Montana, a figure from the most-recent estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau.
A number of states have taken action in a bid to prevent children from accessing pornography over the past couple of years, though this has sparked controversy and legal disputes over privacy and free speech.
Montana Senate Bill 544, which was signed into law by state Governor Greg Gianforte in May and takes effect on January 1, 2024, requires age verification for websites that contain a substantial portion of adult material.
It states "reasonable age verification methods" to prove an individual is at least 18 years old include "government-issued identification" or "any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of the person attempting to access the information is at least 18 years of age or older." For the website to have a substantial portion of pornographic material, this must constitute "more than 331⁄3% of total material on a website," meeting the definition of "material harmful to minors," as set out by the law.
In a statement provided to local network KTVQ, Pornhub said the decision to block access from Montana was made specifically in response to the ID requirement. The company said: "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."
Senate Bill 544 was introduced by state Senator Willis Curdy, a Democrat, and passed the chamber in a bipartisan 47-3 vote. It went on to be approved by the Montana House of Representatives, by 84 votes to 13, before being signed into law by the state's Republican governor.
Newsweek contacted both state Senator Curdy and Governor Gianforte for comment by email on Saturday.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge David Ezra struck down Texas House Bill 1181, a law signed by the state's Governor Greg Abbott in June requiring age verification to view adult websites, after the legislation was challenged by the Free Speech Coalition.
In his ruling, Ezra said the legislation "chills the speech of Plaintiffs and adults who wish to access sexual materials" and "substantially regulates protected speech, is severely underinclusive, and uses overly restrictive enforcement methods." An appeal has been filed by the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Earlier this month, a bid to prosecute Netflix on child pornography charges was rejected by Texas's 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a lower-court injunction. The controversy stemmed from the French film Cuties, which sparked outrage when it was first released in 2020.
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
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