Another win against the pornography industry approaches in the form of a new Florida bill. The law, aiming at online protections for minors, has had the same fortunate result as many others: a statewide self-ban by Pornhub.
It has happened in 13 states so far. Louisiana led with an age-verification bill, and then several states adopted the same model. Rather than comply with the new law, Pornhub blocked access to itself in each state involved.
The site claims that “safety and compliance are at the forefront” of its mission. And because the ID card upload requirements that now are in place endanger children’s privacy and are ineffective, from Pornhub’s standpoint, the organization cannot support the law. Nevermind that children will not be uploading their own IDs as valid means of entry or that safety is undeniably not the name of the game for Pornhub, or that deterrents usually do a good job deterring — Pornhub has a problem with the law in principle, and that is that.
But no one on the anti-pornography side is complaining about it. Florida’s upcoming induction to the group of Pornhub-blocked states is a great plus to a law that itself is mere age verification. What the site’s actions do is remind us of the pornography industry’s selfish, not to mention malicious, intentions. Not user access, not legal uprightness, and not public perception motivate pornography sites in their operation. This is especially true of Pornhub. Once the content is endangered, consumers cease to matter, and nor were they ever worth jumping through hoops.
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None of these revelations are disappointing, of course — it is quite the gift that Pornhub is flat-out blocking access rather than engineering workarounds. On top of that, the site has been incredibly true to its utilitarian ethos. Yet it is hard to convince pornography-affectionate people that they are the ones being used when the institutions meant to represent them reduce them to lust-crazed voters. The Democratic Party is the prime example.
For now, who cares whether the leading pornography site was prompted by self-protection, laziness, or both? It is one of the most visited sites on the internet, and it has just withdrawn. But one thing is sure — Pornhub was scared, and its response makes all of the age verification controversy worthwhile.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
