Pornhub in Utah?

Google searches for “VPN” have skyrocketed in Utah this week for one reason: You can no longer visit Pornhub from a Utah IP address.

To protest a new age restriction law that goes into effect today, MindGeek’s adult sites, including Pornhub, blocked access to its content in Utah. The state’s legislation requires porn sites to verify users are over 18.

If you fire up Incognito Mode and head to Pornhub with an IP address in the state of Utah, you’ll be diverted to a page that has an adult performer reading a statement from the site that claims “giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users.”

Louisiana implemented a similar law in January, but unlike Utah, it has a digital ID program that residents can use to verify their age and access adult sites.

Despite how many people insist they aren’t regulars, Pornhub had more than 76 million US visitors a day in February, making it the fourth most popular website in the country...

Bottom line is tech-savvy web users know there are ways around location-based blockades. If you're trying to watch porn safely here are some tricks to try before crossing state lines for an adult content fix.

Also, I must stress that I am not in Utah and have not been able to verify that my advice will work. More importantly, while this advice can be used to potentially get around Pornhub's embargo of the state, it could also be used to avoid the very age-restriction requirements that Pornhub is protesting. Please know that I am not a legal scholar and cannot advise you on the risks of trying to circumvent the law.

With that out of the way, the easiest way to access Pornhub in Utah is with a virtual private network (VPN). When you switch on a VPN, your web traffic is routed through an encrypted connection to a server operated by the VPN company. That server could be in a different state or a different country from you. Because your web traffic exits that server, it appears as if you are browsing the web from wherever the server is.

So, if you're in Utah, you should connect to a VPN server that's not located in Utah, and then navigate to Pornhub as usual. I recommend that you also use incognito mode while streaming pornography, to prevent the sensual URLs from showing up in your browser's history and autocomplete options.

Nearly all VPN services will let you specify the country where you want your traffic to appear. Some will let you pick down to the city level. A few let you see a list of the actual servers themselves, and their locations, and make your choice that way.

US-based Pornhub viewers will probably want to use a VPN server that's located in the US. I recommend a VPN that will at least let you choose servers in a specific US state. Do note that latency will increase and browsing speed decrease when using a VPN, and that the impact will be more noticeable the further away the VPN server is from you.

If you value a free and open internet where consenting adults are free to access whatever legal content they wish, free from state-backed stigma, do more than just unblock Pornhub. Contact your local legislators, and tell them not to support such laws.