Utah’s bill protecting minors prompts porn site to block access to entire state 

Washington D.C., May 2, 2023 / 15:00 pm

A Utah bill that is designed to prevent minors from accessing pornography online is set to go into effect on Wednesday, May 3, leading the website Pornhub to block access to its website in the entire state. 

The legislation, which Gov. Spencer Cox signed in March, requires commercial entities that provide pornography or other material harmful to minors to verify a person’s age before the person can access the material. It also holds publishers and distributors liable if they fail to comply with the rules. 

When the bill goes into effect, pornographers will need to verify a user’s age in one of three ways. 

The website can verify age through a digitized information card, which is a data file on a mobile device that contains all data elements visible on the face and back of a license or identification card. It can verify age through an independent, third-party verification service that compares the individual’s personal information from commercially available databases. Lastly, it can use any commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of the person. 

Commercial entities that fail to verify a user’s age through one of these means will be liable for damages resulting from a minor accessing the material, which includes court costs and attorney fees. The law does not impose any criminal liabilities on the entity; rather, it only imposes civil liabilities. Such entities are also forbidden from retaining identifying information about the individual and can be held civilly liable if they retain such information.

However, neither internet providers nor search engines will face any liability if a minor accesses pornography.

Pornhub and other pornographic websites operated by its parent company MindGeek halted access to all Utah-based visitors by banning in-state IP addresses from entering the website. When someone from Utah tries to access the website, the person is met with a message that states the company has “made the very difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah.”

“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 to protecting our users, and, in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk,” the message read. It further stated that “we believe 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.”

CNA reached out to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Todd Weiler, for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Although most states do not require pornographers to verify a person’s age, a similar bill became law in Louisiana on Jan. 1 of this year. Pornhub and other major pornography websites complied with the rules in Louisiana. 

Weiler told Fox 13 that he expects Pornhub to comply with the law as it did in Louisiana. 

“They are complying with [Louisiana’s] law, which is essentially the same,” Weiler reportedly said in a text message. “So I expect they will eventually comply with Utah’s as well.” 

This past December, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced federal legislation that would require pornographic websites to verify a user’s age to prevent minors from accessing pornography. However, the lawmakers have not advanced the proposal.

Although pornography websites have claimed that they try to prevent minors from accessing their content, a report published by Common Sense Media found that the vast majority of children have viewed pornography.

The report found that 73% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 had watched pornography online with 54% having viewed pornography by the time they reached 13 years old. About 15% of teen respondents said they first viewed pornography at 10 years old or younger and the average age at which a respondent first viewed pornography was 12 years old.

Help for porn addiction

Pornography use and addiction have taken a demonstrable toll on marriages and spiritual health. CNA reported last month that a new online discussion and prayer platform called SOS Porn Deliverance was recently launched in English under the patronage of the Italian computer programmer Blessed Carlos Acutis.

Integrity Restored is another Catholic apostolate offering help to those struggling with addiction to pornography.