Supreme Court Upholds Texas Age-Verification Laws Ruling; Pornhub Blocked In South Dakota
South Dakota became the latest U.S. state to lose Pornhub access after implementing age-verification laws, days after the Supreme Court upheld a Texas ruling requiring age verification for adult sites.
On June 30, 2025, South Dakota became the latest state to pass an age-verification law for adult-content sites, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
The move came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling in favor of Texas, allowing states to require pornography websites to verify the ages of viewers, in an effort to block minors’ access to adult content.
In protest against the requirements, Pornhub has removed access to the site for anyone living in a state that requires age verification. This means there are now 18 U.S. states where Pornhub is blocked; the country of France also has a Pornhub block.
Although age-verification laws are intended to protect minors from harmful content, these laws are also criticized for privacy concerns and for hampering Americans’ First-Amendment rights.
Cloudwards has created guides for several states facing blocked access, including Utah, Texas and Louisiana. In summary, the simplest way to bypass a Pornhub ban is to use a secure VPN that has IP addresses from areas where Pornhub is still accessible.
Any adult-site visitors would be smart to use a good VPN for the job, anyway, as a VPN will provide anonymity to your online activity and ones with ad- or malware-blocking features will also provide extra security protection for your devices.
We will continue to report on age-verification laws as more states consider similar requirements.