Is There Too Much Porn?

"We have made the difficult decision to block access to our site in Mississippi and Virginia, as we have also recently done in Utah," reads a June 30 statement from Pornhub, the world's second-most trafficked porn site and the thirteenth most trafficked site overall.

Pornhub was reacting to the passage of age-verification laws passed in those three states. Similar laws have passed in Louisiana, Texas, Montana, and Arkansas, leading Politico to declare that "A Simple Law is Doing the Impossible. It's Making the Porn Industry Retreat." The industry is fighting back, however, and won a preliminary injunction against Texas' law.

Join Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel or Facebook page as they discuss the anti-porn laws with sex worker and data scientist Aella. They'll also talk about the psychological literature examining online porn consumption, the privacy implications of age verification laws, and a recent debate Aella attended hosted by the Free Press and FIRE about the effects of "the sexual revolution" on American society.

Sources referenced in this conversation:

Pornhub statement on new age verification laws, June 30, 2023

Reason: "In Scathing Rulings, Federal Courts Block Arkansas and Texas Age Verification Laws," September 1, 2023

Preliminary injunction in NetChoice v. Griffin (Arkansas social media law)

Preliminary injunction in Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero (TX porn law)

Politico: "A Simple Law Is Doing the Impossible. It's Making the Online Porn Industry Retreat" 

Aella: Women prefer more violent porn 

U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee: U.S. marriage rate 1900-2018  

SimilarWeb: Pornhub monthly traffic and rankings

Skeptic: How Porn is Messing with Your Manhood

• Producer: Bess Byers