A recent report by vpnMentor Research Team shows that VPN demand has skyrocketed in Florida after the adult website Pornhub announced exiting the state. Based on the data, the demand for VPNs has surged by over 1,000 percent in Florida.
Back on March 25, 2024, Florida enacted a new age-verification law for accessing pornographic websites. The new law, aka House Bill 3, requires users to provide ID in order to access adult websites. House Bill 3 came into effect on January 1, 2025, and any pornographic website that fails to comply will face fines of up to $50,000 for each violation.
Reacting to the new law, Pornhub's parent company Aylo took a stand by blocking users geo-located in Florida. Aylo also criticized the required age-verification methods as "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous."
As it turns out, House Bill 3 has led to a massive surge in VPN demand, reaching 1,150 percent four hours after the HB3 law came into effect. Additionally, a day after Pornhub blocked Floridians from accessing its website in December, a 51 percent surge in seen in VPN demand in the state.
Following the implementation of House Bill 3, VPN services such as Proton have seen a massive surge in sign-ups in the US. As Proton noted on X, such spikes usually come from countries with unstable governments amid internet shutdowns, but the recent surge is the result of porn.
Florida is not alone in its approach. Other states in the US, including Kentucky, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, North Carolina, Montana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas, and Utah, have also enacted age-verification laws for accessing adult websites.
Users worldwide use VPNs to conceal their location and IP address to access blocked websites. While VPNs could help with that, the real danger is when users turn to using unsafe VPN services and put their privacy and data at risk.
In a nutshell, bypassing laws such as House Bill 3 is as simple as downloading a VPN from app stores, and it has no significant impact on porn consumption habits.
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