People often ask, “Why is Pornhub banned in Texas?” However, the state did not actually ban access to the popular site. Pornhub chose to block all Texas residents in March when a legal challenge to a new state law requiring websites with adult content to verify users’ ages was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

The Supreme Court will ultimately determine whether Texas’ law can stand, but in the meantime, access is denied, and this is what you’ll see:

Texas’ Age Verification Requirement

House Bill 1181, passed in June 2023, requires adult websites to verify the age of users before they’re allowed to access adult content. It requires Texans to upload a photo of a government ID to access any website that devotes more than a third of its content to sexual material.

“Oh yeah, that’s real safe,” one person commented. “Lawmakers do not understand technology.”

Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, claims the law serves as a smokescreen for conservative lawmakers to restrict adult access to pornography.

“As we’ve seen in other states, such bills have failed to protect minors, by driving users from those few websites which comply,” the company says, “to the hundreds of thousands of websites with far fewer safety measures in place, which do not comply.”

The law not only raises a security issue by requiring users to upload their ID – it’s also legally unenforceable due to the ready availability of VPNs (virtual private networks). VPN usage surged more than 234% on the day after the law took effect.

Health Warning Requirement

That same law also requires porn websites to display a health warning about the dangers of pornography. However, that mandate is currently on hold after the Fifth Circuit ruled that the requirement is unenforceable.

How Texas’ Law Limits Porn Access

Texas’ law technically doesn’t restrict adults’ access to online pornography, but it does make them consider the risks of posting their personal identification and user data online.

Many Texas lawmakers have moral objections to pornography. Some object for religious reasons, while others have moral reasons. They hope that requiring users’ government IDs will make consenting adults reconsider visiting these websites. Laws like House Bill 1181 try to force Texans to adhere to lawmakers’ beliefs by framing them as protections for children.

To that end, the law:

• Makes porn websites liable to minors’ parents if the minors are allowed to access the content
• Requires that any commercial entity distributing more than one-third of sexual material harmful to minors must verify the age of users as 18 or older
• Restricts access to any site that devotes more than a third of its content to sexual material – this is to prevent adult sites from claiming that they’re social media sites

Pornhub’s Response 

Pornhub’s response to the new law was swift:

“Unfortunately, the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, but it will also inevitably reduce content creators’ ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it.”

Adult websites argue that requiring government ID information deters legal users. PornHub argues that device-based age-verification systems (in which age is verified at the time you purchase your device or through manually submitting information to your service provider) are safer and more effective.

Legal Challenges

First Amendment rights are at the heart of the legal challenges. Advocates of freedom of expression, including some prominent adult content providers, say laws like this one can (and will) be used to censor various types of content, from works of literature to information on reproductive rights.

The free speech fears have some heft, because the Supreme Court has previously ruled that federal legislation that aims to prevent or limit the distribution of obscene material to minors was an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton calls Pornhub’s block a “win.” 

“Pornhub has now disabled its website in Texas. Sites like Pornhub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children. In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don’t want to comply, they should leave Texas.”

The Texas law is also being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Free Speech Coalition, and other groups, which have argued that the bill exposes users to the potential for identity theft, tracking, or extortion. The legal challenges also note that the law is not particularly effective because it does not require age verification by social media sites (including X, formerly Twitter) or search engines, where pornography can be rampant.

How to Access Blocked Websites in Texas

No matter what the law states, any Texan has access to a VPN. This is a service that allows you to create a secure and private internet connection to another network. It encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server in a different location, which can be anywhere in the world.

By encrypting your data, the VPN protects your online activities from being monitored by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), government agencies, or even hackers.

VPNs mask your IP address and allow you to access websites or services that may be restricted in your region, including blocked websites.

There are free VPNs, paid subscriptions and you can even DIY, but an effective VPN can help cover up much of your digital footprint, including:

• Your IP address
• Your location
• Any websites you visit
• App usage
• Time spent on websites and apps
• Files downloaded or uploaded

Is It Legal to Use a VPN to Watch Porn?

Use of VPN services is legal in Texas. There is no problem with VPN usage unless you’re using them to do something illegal, like view child pornography.

Porn is legal for anyone over age 18, so it is perfectly legal for adults to use VPNs to access Pornhub (or other blocked websites).

It’s important to note that we do not advocate using a VPN to access blocked content if you are under 18. If you get caught, there could be legal consequences.

How is Texas’ Porn Law Enforced?

Texas’ age-verification law bypasses criminal enforcement by placing the burden of age verification on the websites and their owners. 

Because there’s technically no way for law enforcement to monitor Texans’ VPN use and arrest citizens for noncompliance, the law is enforced by requiring the websites to pay civil penalties when they fail to comply, and the companies are liable to parents who find their children accessing the sites.

Fines are up to $10,000 per violation and could be raised to up to $250,000 per subsequent violation.