LINCOLN, Neb. — Aylo began blocking access to Pornhub in Nebraska on Monday, in anticipation of the state’s new age verification law — one of many such bills promoted by religious conservatives around the country — which is scheduled to go into effect Thursday.
“Nebraskans might need a new source for online smut,” the Nebraska Examiner commented.
Nebraska’s Legislative Bill 1092 requires adult sites to verify users’ ages via user-uploaded ID cards or other age-identifying documents.
Free Speech Coalition (FSC) recently explained through a statement that the five new laws going into effect this month, including Nebraska’s, “authorize private lawsuits against companies that do not force users to undergo identity verification to access adult websites.”
As it had already done in Texas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia and Utah, Aylo replaced its landing page for Nebraska 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 Nebraska 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 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.
State Sen. Dave Murman, the Republican legislator behind Nebraska’s LB 1092, has asserted that the bill aims not only to shield minors from adult content but also to “protect women.”
Murman acknowledged that his bill was explicitly modeled after similar legislation passed in Utah, Louisiana and Arkansas, which he called “successful.”
“We’re not trying to do something new here,” Murman said. “We’re trying to do what’s been done in other states.”
Murman has also stated that he would prefer to institute a total ban on adult websites, but that he opted for the age verification bill instead when he realized he could not censor all porn in Nebraska, “for constitutional reasons.”
During the legislative debate about his bill, Murman seemed encouraged by the fact that the site he called “The Pornhub” had already pulled out of several states.
“So, apparently, it’s working,” he declared at the time.