Pornhub Shutdown In Texas Sends Users Scrambling For VPN Access
Texas recently became the latest state to enforce legal age verification to access adult content on the internet, following a lawsuit by Attorney General Ken Paxton that seeks to protect minors. Pornhub, one of the world's biggest pornography sites, has decided to block access in Texas instead of putting an age verification system in place. Pornhub's argument is that on-device verification is the way to go, while privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation say online verification mandates would weaken anonymity and put privacy at risk.
As the back-and-forth continues over the most effective means to protect underage users from explicit online material, the adult content audience in Texas is scrambling to bypass the content block put in place by Pornhub. Naturally, VPNs are perhaps the only way around the issue, though even using a VPN to access banned content is a risky proposition. As expected, traffic for VPN searches has shot up by over 1,500 percent.
SlashGear compiled search data for the 10 most popular VPN software in the past 10 days, and found that the spike in user interest is staggering. Proton VPN, one of the most popular names in the VPN game, saw search traffic go up by an astonishing 4,750 percent since Pornhub's access block went into effect.
Texans desperately want a way around the block
Opera GX, a gaming-focused web browser that offers an unlimited free VPN facility, also recorded a search increase worth 300 percent. VPN Hub, an app that lets users block specific apps and websites, had search interest skyrocket by the same magnitude as Opera's browser. Tunnel Bear, Nord VPN, and Mullvad VPN also amassed over 100 percent growth each in online user queries. Windscribe, Browsec VPN, and Firefox VPN also witnessed a similar spike in online interest.
Aside from VPNs, users were scrambling to find trustworthy information on the whole chain of events unfolding in Texas. SlashGear analyzed traffic trends for popular keywords and found that queries for "Pornhub Texas" had a meteoric rise worth 4,200 percent, while "Texas porn law" was up by 3,900 percent. Likewise, generic and informational queries such as "Is porn banned in Texas" and "How to verify age on Pornhub" also went up by more than 3,000 percent each.
Location-specific search keywords such as "Texas VPN," "VPN Texas," "Pornhub shutdown," and "Pornhub blocked" also saw search interest increase by over 1,500 percent. There was also a significant rise in queries for "Create Pornhub account," but that is likely not going to unlock access in Texas, as the adult site only requires consent that a user is over 18 years of age, but doesn't mandate ID verification of any kind. At this point, the only solution for Texas residents may be to us3e VPN apps and software, though VPNs are not the safest alternative either.