Since March 2024, Pornhub has been blocked in Texas due to a new state law requiring porn websites to verify the ages of users. Now, Pornhub wants Texas and other states with similar laws to rethink how effective they are.

In a July 28 letter sent to more than 300 lawmakers in more than a dozen states, Pornhub slammed state legislators for passing age verification laws that it says encroach on consumer privacy rights and then funnel adults onto rogue, shady porn websites. The letter was addressed to several state governors who have advocated for age verification laws, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. 

“We are deeply concerned about the harm being caused by the performative, ineffective, and unenforceable age verification laws you have taken part in passing despite your intention of protecting minors,” Pornhub wrote. 

Pornhub told lawmakers that despite many states’ stated aims of protecting children, age verification laws have “failed at that objective.” The company called the current approach, with every website verifying users’ ages and storing that data, “dangerous.” Instead, Pornhub wants state lawmakers to require companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google to enable parental controls by default on every phone, tablet or computer they sell. For example, that would mean that out of the box, an iPad would require a user to verify their age and store that data on the device. Otherwise, the user would not be able to download certain apps or use certain services. 

Pornhub pointed to the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, which required websites operating in the UK to take action to stop minors from seeing content deemed explicit. The company cited a report from the UK’s Office of Communications that found that site-by-site age verification methods caused users to move to websites without age verification.

“In other words, dangerous websites that are breaking the law by refusing to implement any kind of age assurance are benefiting from the law by winning traffic over from the compliant websites that have,” Pornhub wrote.

Pornhub singled out Texas in its letter to demonstrate this. In a table provided in the letter’s appendix, Pornhub showed that nine out of the first 10 Google Search results for “free porn” were websites with no age verification at all. Pornhub evidently carried out these Google searches on June 4, 2026. Indeed, when Chron attempted to replicate its results on Monday, all of the websites that came up on the first page of Google search after searching the term “free porn” either asked only whether a user was 18 years old or had no age verification method at all. Texas’ age verification law has been in place since September 2023.

“We can no longer accept laws that create the appearance of action while failing to address the challenge of keeping kids safe online,” Pornhub wrote. “It is particularly concerning when these laws drive regulated business out of your jurisdictions and aid in creating a lushmarket for bad actors online, when a viable solution exists today.” 

Pornhub’s new letter to lawmakers, both national and in Texas, comes after parent company Aylo Global Entertainment previously told a Texas court that it had been mulling whether or not to reactivate service in the state with age-verification technology active. As of this writing, visiting Pornhub or any of Aylo’s other websites in Texas without a VPN brings up only a message urging Texans to contact their lawmakers about age verification laws. 

Pornhub and its subsidiary websites are currently blocked in 25 U.S. states with some form of age verification law on the books. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas’ age verification law and similar laws in other states after ruling that such laws passed constitutional muster in last summer’s landmark case FSC v. Paxton. Since then, the case against Texas’ age verification law has returned to a Texas district court.