People in North Carolina who were looking for adult entertainment on P*rnHub or any of its sister sites can no longer get to them.
This is in reaction to House Bill 8, a new law that goes into effect on January 1 and says that all adult film websites must get proof of age from users so that people under 18 can’t get on the sites.
On P*rnHub’s home page, there is a message that says the rule would basically make users upload their ID cards every time they want to use the site. They say this isn’t a good way to police the site and could lead to privacy problems. Because of this, they have blocked all North Carolinians from accessing the page.
“It’s not my job to tell you that you should watch p*rn or not,” Bo Quickel said. “Of course, I think it should be kept away from minors. If they’re not physically ready for that dopamine drop with cigarettes or alcohol, they shouldn’t be ready for a p*rn dopamine drop either.”
Vigilante Truth, Quickel’s group, works to stop s*x slavery. As part of this, he talks to young people in public about how dangerous it is to watch p*rnography.
“I’ve talked to senior high schools, full senior high schools with only boys.” When I did that before, I asked everyone to raise their hand if they hadn’t watched p*rn in the past week. “And just one young man did,” he said.
The National Library of Medicine did a study in 2016 and found that more than 88% of p*rn scenes they looked at showed violence against women. That’s one reason why Quickel and other lawmakers in the state think kids shouldn’t be able to get to it.
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Qidel said, “When you give that to a young person who doesn’t have much life experience to balance it with, you end up with some really disruptive males and females who think it’s okay and normal.”
“The best and most effective way to protect children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification,” P*rnHub says in their statement.
The whole thing they said is below:
Dear user,
As you may know, your elected officials in North Carolina are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. 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 addition, mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply. As we’ve seen in other states, this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures in place. Very few sites are able to compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place. To protect children and user privacy, any legislation must be enforced against all platforms offering adult content.
The safety of our users is one of our biggest concerns. We believe that the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification. Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in North Carolina.
Please contact your representatives before it is too late and demand device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy.