For US states, Pornhub restricts access

The adult streaming company Pornhub suspended its services in Utah on Monday in protest of a new law that requires pornography websites to verify a user’s age before granting access to their content. As of Tuesday, anyone with a Utah-based IP address who attempts to visit the Pornhub website will instead be shown a video of adult performer Cherie DeVille explaining why the website is no longer available. The law mandates that “reasonable age verification methods” must be adhered to by adult websites available in the state that “distribute material harmful to minors”. Utah's legislature declared pornography a "public health crisis" in 2016, and the Mormon Church held nine out of every ten seats in the state's legislature. Digital experts have sided with Pornhub and its peers in the age verification debate, but Jason Kelley, an associate director of strategy at digital rights watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation, believes that moves to restrict underage viewers come in parallel to a secondary risk of websites people visit. His viewing habits can be tracked and connected to their identity.