FRANKFORT, Ky. — Aylo has blocked access to Pornhub in Kentucky as of Wednesday, five days before the state’s new age verification law — one of many such bills promoted by religious conservatives around the country — is scheduled to go into effect.
Kentucky is a special case because just as two proposed stand-alone age verification laws — House Bill 241 from Rep. Shane Baker and Senate Bill 276 from Sen. Lindsey Tichenor — were expected to fail to gain approval, veteran religious-right Republican Gex Williams used his influence to attach the age verification language to an unrelated bill before the legislative recess.
As it had already done in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia and Utah, Aylo replaced its landing page for Kentucky IP addresses with an SFW video in which Cherie DeVille explains the reasons for the content restriction.
“As you may know, your elected officials have required us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,” DeVille tells Kentucky users. “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 for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.”
Several Republican legislators and politicians across the country, including Kentucky’s Williams, have explicitly stated that the intended goal of their age verification bills is to block access to Pornhub specifically, and have celebrated that outcome in the states where Aylo has curtailed its services.