Pornhub Exits Florida, VPN Demand Rises

Following Pornhub’s recent withdrawal from Florida, VPN demand has risen significantly among internet users in the Sunshine state.

On New Year’s Day, Pornhub began prohibiting Floridians from accessing the site. This was as a result of the age-verification mandate which was implemented by the Floridian government, taking effect on 1st January 2025.

Between 12:00am and 4:00am on New Year’s Day, VPN-pushing vpnMentor documented a whopping 1150 percent surge in VPN demand within Florida alone.

Many internet users are seeking to bypass restrictions by masking their public IP addresses.

The Online Protection for Minors act, also known as House Bill 3 (HB3) was signed into law in March.

Governor Ron DeSantis enacted this law, aiming to protect minors from inappropriate online contents.

The legislation requires that the age of visitors be verified before granting them access to any content on the website.

And websites like Pornhub which hosts a “substantial portion of material harmful to minors”, to restrict users under the age of 18.

Pornhub’s Exit Strategy

Ensuring kids aren’t watching X-rated videos requires identity and age verification. Pornhub isn’t willing to get into all of that.

Websites that fail to comply with the regulations under House Bill 3 are liable for fines up to $50,000

In response to this new law, Pornhub’s parent company Aylo decided to pull out the site from the Sunshine state.

Florida will not be the first state in the United States to have experienced this. States like Montana, Nebraska, Kentucky, Idaho, North Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia, Indiana, Texas, Kansas, Utah and Arkansas have had the site pulled from their states following similar laws.

Speaking to news outlets, Aylo said, “Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard and dangerous.”

“Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy.”

He went on to say, “Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.”

Additionally, Pornhub cited Louisiana as an example. Louisiana passed the age-verification law last year.

According to Aylo, Pornhub was among the few sites that had complied with the law.

He continued his statement saying, “Since then, our traffic in Louisiana dropped approximately 80 percent. These people did not stop looking for porn. They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify their age, that don’t follow the law, that don’t take user safety seriously, and that often don’t even moderate content.”

Pornhub’s withdrawal from Florida emphasizes growing challenges around modulating online contents without compromising user privacy.

The rise in demand for VPNs accentuates the length internet users will go to access these sites while maintaining anonymity.