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This week, Florida made headlines after passing HB 3, a law banning children under 14 from accessing social media without parental consent.

Much less attention was given to another requirement under the law obligating "pornographic or sexually explicit websites" to "use age verification to prevent minors from accessing sites that are inappropriate for children," as Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis explained the law in a statement .

But Pornhub's parent company, Aylo, has taken notice, with a spokesperson confirming to Ars that "we are aware of the passage into law of HB 3 in Florida, which unfortunately fails to protect minors online."

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On Monday, Florida became the first state to ban kids under 14 from social media without parental permission. It appears likely that the law—considered one of the most restrictive in the US—will face significant legal challenges, however, before taking effect on January 1.

Under HB 3 , apps like Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok would need to verify the ages of users, then delete any accounts for users under 14 when parental consent is not granted. Companies that "knowingly or recklessly" fail to block underage users risk fines of up to $10,000 in damages to anyone suing on behalf of child users. They could also be liable for up to $50,000 per violation in civil penalties.

In a statement , Florida governor Ron DeSantis said the "landmark law" gives "parents a greater ability to protect their children" from a variety of social media harm. Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, who spearheaded the law, explained some of that harm, saying that passing HB 3 was critical because "the Internet has become a dark alley for our children where predators target them and dangerous social media leads to higher rates of depression, self-harm, and even suicide."

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A California law requiring a wide range of platforms to estimate ages of users and protect minors from accessing harmful content appears to be just as unconstitutional as a recently blocked law in Texas requiring age verification to access adult content.

Yesterday, US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ordered a preliminary injunction stopping California Attorney General Rob Bonta from enforcing the state's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), finding that the law likely violates the First Amendment.

"The Court finds that although the stated purpose of the Act—protecting children when they are online—clearly is important," Freeman wrote, "the CAADCA likely violates the First Amendment."

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Courts have started blocking some US states' earliest attempts to age-gate the Internet. Yesterday, courts ordered preliminary injunctions blocking a Texas law requiring ID to access websites featuring adult entertainment , as well as an Arkansas law requiring ID to access some social media platforms. Both laws otherwise would've taken effect today.

While the Texas law was more narrowly aimed at restricting minors from accessing specific content that's not age-appropriate, Arkansas' law—the Social Media Safety Act—was much broader, stopping minors from creating accounts without parental permission on social media platforms that generate more than $100 million annually. It was also, according to the court, poorly researched, vaguely defined, and likely unconstitutional.

Bizarrely, Arkansas' Social Media Safety Act would apply to some obvious platforms, like Facebook or TikTok, but not to other more popular platforms for kids, like YouTube. Netchoice, a trade group representing platforms likely impacted by the law—including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Nextdoor—sued to block the law, partly because the law was too vague. Some platforms, like Snapchat, weren't even sure if the law applied to them, Netchoice argued.

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Debate continues to rage over the federal Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which seeks to hold platforms liable for feeding harmful content to minors. KOSA is lawmakers' answer to whistleblower Frances Haugen's shocking revelations to Congress. In 2021, Haugen leaked documents and provided testimony alleging that Facebook knew that its platform was addictive and was harming teens—but blinded by its pursuit of profits, it chose to ignore the harms.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who sponsored KOSA, was among the lawmakers stunned by Haugen's testimony. He said in 2021 that Haugen had showed that "Facebook exploited teens using powerful algorithms that amplified their insecurities." Haugen's testimony, Blumenthal claimed, provided "powerful proof that Facebook knew its products were harming teenagers."

But when Blumenthal introduced KOSA last year, the bill faced immediate and massive blowback from more than 90 organizations—including tech groups, digital rights advocates, legal experts, child safety organizations, and civil rights groups. These critics warned lawmakers of KOSA's many flaws, but they were most concerned that the bill imposed a vague "duty of care" on platforms that was "effectively an instruction to employ broad content filtering to limit minors’ access to certain online content." The fear was that the duty of care provision would likely lead platforms to over-moderate and imprecisely filter content deemed controversial—things like information on LGBTQ+ issues, drug addiction, eating disorders, mental health issues, or escape from abusive situations.

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On July 1, laws requiring adult websites to verify user ages took effect in Mississippi and Virginia, despite efforts by Pornhub to push back against the legislation. Those efforts include Pornhub blocking access to users in these states and rallying users to help persuade lawmakers that requiring ID to access adult content will only create more harms for users in their states.

Pornhub posted a long statement on Twitter, explaining that the company thinks US officials acting to prevent children from accessing adult content is "great." However, "the way many elected officials have chosen to implement these laws is haphazard and dangerous."

Pornhub isn't the only one protesting these laws. Last month, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) sued Louisiana over its age-verification law, with FSC Executive Director Alison Boden alleging that these kinds of laws now passed in seven states are unconstitutional.

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Starting today, Pornhub visitors in Virginia, Mississippi, and Arkansas will see a "very important message" on the adult website's homepage. Pornhub's public service announcement prompts visitors to contact representatives and oppose recently passed age-verification laws in these states that Pornhub claims puts children and all users' privacy at risk. If users don't support Pornhub before laws go into effect, the company says, Pornhub could potentially restrict access in these states—a threat it already followed through on in Utah .

In the PSA, adult entertainer Cherie Deville tells Pornhub users that instead of states requiring ID to access adult content, "the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to verify users' age at a device level and allow or block access to age-restricted materials and websites accordingly."

According to CNN , this PSA is part of a larger effort by Pornhub and its private equity owners, Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), to work with big tech companies to create new device-based age verification solutions. So far, ECP partner Solomon Friedman told CNN that ECP has lobbied Apple, Google, and Microsoft to "develop a technological standard that might turn a user’s electronic device into the proof of age necessary to access restricted online content."

Since Monday, Pornhub has begun blocking access for all Utah visitors, taking a strong stance against the state's recently passed age-verification law . In a video statement that now appears on Pornhub's homepage when Utah users attempt to access the adult site, Pornhub spokesperson Sharita Bell said the law was not a "real solution."

"As you may know, your elected officials have required us to verify your age before granting you access to our website," Bell said in the video. "While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users—and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk."

In its statement, Pornhub warned that "without proper enforcement," Utah's law would put children and privacy at risk by driving Pornhub users to platforms that choose not to comply with the law—including pirate sites possibly hosting illegal content.

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After decades of America fretting over minors potentially being overexposed to pornography online, several states are suddenly moving fast in 2023 to attempt to keep kids off porn sites by passing laws requiring age verification.

Last month, Louisiana became the first state to require ID from residents to access pornography online . Since then, seven states have rushed to follow in Louisiana’s footsteps. According to a tracker from Free Speech Coalition , Florida , Kansas , South Dakota , and West Virginia introduced similar laws, and laws in Arkansas , Mississippi , and Virginia are seemingly closest to passing. If passed, some of these laws could be enforced promptly, while some bills in states like Florida and Mississippi specify that they wouldn’t take effect until July.

But not every state agrees that rushing to require age verification is the best solution. Today, a South Dakota committee voted to defer voting on its age verification bill until the last day of the legislative session. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Jessica Castleberry, seemingly failed to persuade the committee of the urgency of passing the law, saying at the hearing that "this is not your daddy's Playboy. Extreme, degrading, and violent pornography is only one click away from our children." She told Ars that the bill was not passed because some state lawmakers were too “easily swayed by powerful lobbyists.”