Poll Shows Vast Majority of Americans Want Age Verification Laws for Porn Sites

A new poll is showing Americans overwhelmingly support mandatory age verification to access pornographic websites. According to an RMG Research poll, 83% of registered American voters support a national mandate requiring age verification for pornographic websites.

The poll, which was commissioned by the American Principles Project, further found that 58% of Americans strongly favor the proposal, 25% somewhat favor it, 9% somewhat oppose it, and only 5% strongly oppose it, with 4% unsure.

American Principles Project policy director Jon Schweppe said of the poll’s findings, “This is the most broadly popular ‘culture war’ policy we’ve ever seen…”

Mike Stabile, public affairs director at the pro-porn Free Speech Coalition, took to Twitter to quote one of PornHub’s new owners, Sarah Bain, who said, “At some point, the adult [porn] industry will be normalized.” American Principles Project president Terry Schilling shot back with the results of the poll, quipping, “You know what’s mainstream? 83% of Americans supporting age verification.”

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, welcomed the news. “These poll results are very good news that probably tell a sad story,” he told The Washington Stand. “It’s great that Americans generally believe children should not be exposed to pornography. This also seems to create as clear a legislative mandate as we will ever find to pass more legislation requiring age verification before porn sites can be accessed.”

The poll references legislation enacted in seven states that requires porn websites to verify users’ ages before granting access to pornographic content. Thus far, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Texas, Utah, and Virginia have mandated age verification, prompting major porn websites like PornHub to ban access to users in some of those states. The age verification requirement cut PornHub’s online traffic by a reported 80% in Louisiana, and the porn giant has completely shut down in Mississippi, Utah, and Virginia. Now, when internet users visit the site, they are greeted by a message informing them of the states’ laws barring minors from accessing pornography, which have prompted the company to discontinue its business in the states and to call state legislators to complain.

PornHub and the Free Speech Coalition, as well as several other porn websites, have filed lawsuits in some of the states requiring age verification. The lawsuits allege the new mandates infringe upon rights to free speech and further argue that the language of the legislation is too vague to be followed. For example, the age verification requirements apply to websites featuring “material harmful to minors,” which PornHub and its allies argue is ambiguous terminology.

Alison Boden, executive director of Free Speech Coalition, said, “These laws give the state the power to harass and censor legal businesses. We, of course, support keeping minors from accessing adult content, but allowing the state to suppress certain speech by requiring invasive and burdensome systems that consumers refuse to engage with is simply state censorship.” The lawsuit filed against Louisiana states, “Because of the Acts’ vagueness, cautious operators of even non-pornographic websites must place an age-verification content wall over their entire websites if they wish to continue communicating with … audiences without risking ruinous tort liability.”

State lawmakers responsible for the age verification mandates have held their ground in the face of the lawsuits, with Politico reporting legislators think the porn industry’s backlash is “‘hilarious’ and have been ‘high-fiving’ each other in boyish triumph.”

Backholm also noted that the poll results could signal widespread admission of the harms that porn inflicts. “I am concerned … that the virtual unanimity with which Americans are speaking on this issue is evidence of personal experience with the harms of pornography,” he told TWS. “Most adults would like to help children avoid the kind of pain and hardship they have experienced themselves, so this seems like an admission that it hasn’t made their life better.”

In fact, this seems to have been the impetus for the state age verification mandates. In Louisiana, the first state to enact an age verification law, sex addiction therapist and state legislator Laurie Schlegel introduced the legislation. She told reporters the idea came to her after hearing pop star Billie Eilish’s comments about pornography use as a child. In 2021, she told radio personality Howard Stern, “I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11. … I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.”

A Common Sense Media survey released earlier this year showed Eilish’s experience with porn was not an uncommon one: 73% of current teens aged 13 to 17 have been exposed to internet pornography by the age of 12. A majority stumbled across porn by clicking on porn advertisement links. Additionally, the survey found that 84% of pornographic content consumed by teens depicted violence, choking, bondage and sadism, or rape. The study also stated, “Pornography may play a larger role in exploration for LGBTQ+ teens than for other teens. Two-thirds of LGBTQ+ teen respondents consumed pornography intentionally.”

Existing state-wide age verification laws were, notably, passed by nearly-unanimous — and in some cases completely unanimous — margins. The new RMG Research poll shows that Americans across the political spectrum overwhelmingly favor such laws at a broader level.