WASHINGTON, DC (March 15, 2024) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) said that minors in Texas will be better protected from pornography exposure now that a federal appeals court upheld a law requiring pornography websites to verify their users are adults. In response, Pornhub blocked access to its site from Texas users.
“Texas is to be commended for fighting to protect children from accessing online pornography, which is rife with child sexual abuse material, rape, sex trafficking, image-based sexual abuse, and other nonconsensual content. Research is abundantly clear that pornography can be extremely harmful to children,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“The law has already found success! Rather than comply with the Texas law, Pornhub has outright blocked all Texas users from accessing its exploitative site. Pornhub’s temper tantrum over the legitimacy of Texas’ law ultimately reveals an ugly truth: it will lose revenue if children cannot access pornography on its site. Pornhub depends on children having access to boost its profits.
“Age verification to access pornography does not infringe on the privacy of adults and is not unconstitutional. Texas’ age verification law was carefully designed to prevent access by children to pornography that is harmful to them, while allowing unimpeded access to the same content by adults. Kudos to Texas and to other states that are prioritizing child protection from pornography over Pornhub’s profits!” Hawkins said.
There are two class action lawsuits against Pornhub that have been certified in the United States, including one that the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is co-leading, and multiple civil lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada against Pornhub for profiting from sex trafficking and child sexual abuse material.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography. https://endsexualexploitation.org/
