SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, has blocked access to its network of premium and free adult websites from IP addresses in Missouri. As AVN reported extensively, an age-verification regulation adopted by the former Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey took effect on November 30.
“Pornhub is welcome to leave Missouri," said Catherine Hanaway, the attorney general who replaced Bailey after he resigned to serve at a senior post at the FBI.
"What is not welcome is any company that puts profit above the safety of our children,” said Hanaway. “Protecting Missouri’s children is of the greatest importance. If companies choose to walk away instead of complying with the law, that is their decision, but it is absolutely a victory for Missouri families.”
As is standard in Aylo's responses to the inconsistent patchwork of age verification laws and regulations across the United States, the parent company criticized elected officials in Missouri for relying on website-level age verification interventions.
Instead, Aylo has long maintained its support for age-verification interventions at the device or operating-system level, not on individual websites. Considering this, Aylo confirmed to AVN last week that it is actively looking to work with companies like Apple and Google with age identification signals and APIs to support verification.
Also, as expected, VPN searches in Missouri have risen since Nov. 30. AVN's review of Google Trends data from Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 showed a significant spike in search terms such as "VPN" and "virtual private network."
Using a consumer protection law, Hanaway is finally closing the gap on the regulation her predecessor, Bailey, initially proposed. Having only served in the position for a short time, Bailey proposed this rule to much disorganization and criticism.
AVN also previously reported that Bailey's first variation of the age verification rule was built on technological capabilities that don't currently exist.
As AVN reported earlier in April, Bailey promulgated a consumer protection regulation that requires so-called "dual-level" age verification for all websites that host material classified as harmful to minors. This classification includes, but is not limited to, sexually explicit content.
Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, confirmed that dual-level age verification is not currently possible.
Missouri was the first state to implement age verification through a rulemaking and regulatory procedure.
