Age-verification laws have spread throughout the U.S. in the last few years.
Age Verification in the US
We continue to block access to Pornhub in more states that have passed age verification laws.
Sorry, No Pornhub Access in 23 States and 3 Countries. How to Watch Anyway
Aylo sites like Pornhub are blocked across the US and in Australia, France, and the UK, in protest of age-verification laws. Here's how we got here, and how VPNs can help you connect.
Age verification on porn sites is putting queer adult industry workers at risk
The laws requiring digital age checks — sold as child protection — are tanking the income of adult industry workers, risking their safety and even forcing them out of business.
The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the US. Activists Are Fighting Back
Half of the country now requires age verification to watch porn or access “harmful” content. Digital rights advocates are pushing back against legislation they say will make the internet less safe.
10 (Not So) Hidden Dangers of Age Verification
It’s nearly the end of 2025, and half of the US and the UK now require you to upload your ID or scan your face to watch “sexual content.” A handful of states and Australia now have various
Ohio's New Porn Age Verification Law: Big Brother Dressed Up as Child Protection - Nick's Blog
Ohio's new age verification law requiring ID to access adult websites (starting September 29, 2025) fails to protect children while forcing adults to surrender personal data to access legal content. This "small government" Republican law creates a surveillance system that invades privacy without addressing the real online dangers kids face.
Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet
Age-verification laws are weaponized to censor LGBTQ+ and abortion-related content online under the guise of protecting children from porn.
Age-verification laws are just VPN tutorials
On July 25, the day the United Kingdom activated the first phase of its Online Safety Act, requiring any website with sexually explicit…
The Year States Chose Surveillance Over Safety: 2025 in Review
2025 was the year age verification went from a fringe policy experiment to a sweeping reality across the United States. Half of the U.S. now mandates age verification for accessing adult content or
Social media age verification laws in the United States
In the United States, age verification laws for social media are ostensibly designed to limit young people's access to content deemed problematic such as pornography and to reduce the negative impact of social media on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.
Pornhub sends letter to lawmakers over 'dangerous' age verification
The tube site says constituents deserve better.
Mandatory age verification for pornography access: Why it can't and won't ‘save the children’ - Zahra Stardust, Abdul Obeid, Alan McKee, Daniel Angus, 2024
Age verification is currently gaining traction among some western democracies as a means to restrict minors’ access to online pornography. In this article we co...
Site Blocking and Age Verification for Twitter, Instagram, Snap and Twitch?: Age Verification Lobby Confirms it Wants Bill S-210 to Cover All Social Media Sites - Michael Geist
Bill S-210 - the Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act - burst onto the public scene late last year as a majority of the House voted for the bill at second reading, sending it to the Public Safety committee for review. The bill, which is the brainchild of Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, was supported by the Conservatives, Bloc and NDP with a smattering of votes from backbench Liberal MPs (the cabinet voted against, signalling it is not supported by the government). The bill raises significant concerns with the prospect of government-backed censorship, mandated age verification to use search engines or social media, and a framework for court-ordered website blocking (I appeared before the Senate committee that studied by the bill in February 2022, arguing that “by bringing together website blocking, face recognition technologies, and stunning overbreadth that would capture numerous mainstream services, the bill isn’t just a slippery slope, it is an avalanche.”). In response to the public criticism of the bill, Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne has suggested that concerns about it extending to general purpose social media sites is overstated since the intent is to target adult content sites. Yet that is not what the bill provides as it applies to anyone who makes sexually explicit material available on the Internet for commercial purposes:
Age verification is coming for the internet — and it’s already raising red flags
Legislative efforts to age-gate parts of the internet are gaining traction. Some experts warn of compliance complications and data security breaches.
Age Verification Bills – Action Center
In 2022, Louisiana passed a law requiring the use of age verification on websites that contain a “substantial portion” (33.33%) of adult content. Websites must utilize commercial age verification systems that check a user’s government identification or “public or private transactional data” to confirm that a user is at least 18 years old.
So, You’ve Hit An Age Gate. What Now?
EFF is against age gating and age verification mandates, and we hope we’ll win in getting existing ones overturned and new ones prevented. But mandates are already in effect, an…
