Passing age verification laws at the state level is not enough to destroy the pornography industry, but it is certainly a good start.
This morning, the South Dakota state senate effectively killed an age verification bill, meant to require internet services that contain mature content to confirm the ages of users and prevent access for minors, by deferring it to the ‘41st legislative day,’ where it will likely go to perish.
On the flip side, Texas General Attorney Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Aylo Global, the mother distributor company of over one hundred pornographic websites, including Pornhub. Aylo is being charged with disobeying Texan age verification law, and it risks losing $10,000 for every day it broke the law and more.
The age verification movement to combat the despicable sexual abuse and exploitation of minors on pornographic websites has picked up steam since Louisiana passed the first one in 2022. Since then, eight states have adopted similar age verification laws, with over a dozen more on the way.
While the fast momentum of this movement is great, there is a strong reason for the pornography industry to continue violating age restriction laws: they cost them too much money. Companies that profit from pornography will not go down without a fight. They have far too much to lose.
Aylo rebranded from its former name, MindGeek, shortly after it got sued by over 120 women, some of whom were underage, who accused it of profiting from their rapes on camera by GirlsDoPorn, whose videos were plastered all over Pornhub. The senior community manager for Pornhub and another large Aylo website called YouPorn admitted that “age verification devastates traffic” and “it costs us money to verify.”
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Do not stop at age verification laws. That measure is effective, but not nearly enough. Everyone is still tiptoeing around the fundamental issue. Many politicians are still too scared to say what needs to be said and have the discussions that need to be had, in order to finally strike at the heart of America’s most catastrophic social problems: pornography itself.
While the decision of South Dakota is unfortunate, it is merely a temporary setback. The ball is starting to roll on both sides of the political aisle to do something about the pornography crisis in this country. If we can capitalize on the growing anti-pornography sentiment, we may strike a fatal blow in the future. The pornography industry has little support. We can win this war.
Parker Miller is a 2024 Washington Examiner Winter Fellow.
