Searches for virtual private networking software briefly spiked in Texas this week after Pornhub suspended service in the state over a law forcing adult websites to verify the age or identities of their users. The four-fold rise in Google searches for tools that can circumvent the state-level blocking suggests the law may already be having unintended side effects, days after a federal appeals court upheld the legislation and said it could remain in effect.
” Pornhub has pulled out of multiple states in response to a wave of age verification laws sweeping the country, including in Montana, Utah, Virginia and others. It also highlights the running debate in statehouses nationwide about how and whether governments can require websites to perform age verification. The law in question in Texas is known as HB 1181. It requires adult websites to implement “reasonable age verification” methods to ensure that pornography is not being distributed to minors.