Pornhub seeks a return to Georgia's web browsers

State of play: Pornhub sent a letter to more than 300 state leaders across the country last week — including Gov. Brian Kemp, Attorney General Chris Carr and several Republican state lawmakers — asking them to rethink or rescind laws that require adult website visitors to verify their age, Politico reports.

• The laws that exist now in roughly half of all states "demonstrably do not work" and effectively fail to shield the minors they were written to protect, plus they put "adults' personal data at risk," Pornhub wrote.
• Instead of site-specific age verification requirements, Pornhub says, lawmakers should put the responsibility on the tech giants — including Apple, Microsoft and Google — to make parental controls the default settings on their operating systems.

Flashback: Under a Georgia law that went into effect in 2025, websites that publish adult content are required to verify users' ages, typically through government-issued IDs, including digital driver's licenses.

• In response, PornHub blocked access to its site in Georgia, calling the state's photo ID rules unworkable, as it's done in nearly every other state with similar laws.

Between the lines: Some users have sought workarounds such as virtual private networks (VPNs).

Case in point: Georgia ranks 10th in Google searches over the last 12 months for VPN services, which let users route their internet traffic through other states or countries.

• Axios Atlanta tried to sign up for a new Pornhub account Tuesday without using a VPN, but the site said it's not "accepting new account registrations in your region."