Critics argue that age verification was never about protecting children, but about removing porn from the Internet. A video leaked in 2024 by the Center for Climate Reporting shows Trump ally and Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought calling age verification laws a “backdoor” strategy for federal porn bans.
Sites like OnlyFans and Pornhub have brought platform-dependent sex work into the mainstream, but they have also made it easier for adult entertainers and consumers to police themselves. As more states begin to impose additional fees on sex work, creators will face the brunt of the new laws more than anyone else.
Mike Stabile, director of public policy at the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult industry in the US, says the heteronormative ideology of cultural conservatism taking shape under Trump 2.0 seeks to punish sexual expression. “When we talk about free speech, we usually mean free speech, the ability to speak freely without government interference. But in this case, free also means not having to pay for the right to do so. A government tax on speech limits that right to those who can afford it.”
As a company policy, OnlyFans complies with all tax requirements in the jurisdictions in which it operates. Manufacturers are responsible for their own tax matters. Pornhub, which is currently blocked in Utah and Alabama, did not respond to a request for comment.
Douk says that following the Supreme Court’s decision upholding age-verification laws in Texas, states can legally regulate minors’ access to sexually explicit material, “but the porn tax does nothing to limit minors’ access to this speech – it simply makes it more expensive to provide this material to adults.” A 2022 report from youth advocacy nonprofit Common Sense Media found that 73 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 have viewed adult content online. Today, young people regularly access NSFW content through social media on platforms such as X and Snap. Last year, a survey by the UK’s Office of the Children’s Commissioner reported that 59 percent of minors are being accidentally exposed to porn, primarily through social media, rising to 38 percent in 2023.
<a href