Age-verification laws are written for websites. They require sites with a large share of adult material to check that visitors are adults, and they put the penalties on the site [1]. Creators are not the ones these laws regulate, but they feel the effects in three places: the audiences they can reach, the payment rules they work under, and the records they keep about who appears in their work.
This guide covers each of those, and the questions worth putting to any platform before you publish there.
What happens to a creator’s audience when a platform blocks a state?
Reach in that state shrinks. Pornhub’s owner, Aylo, has mostly chosen to block states with these laws rather than run ID checks, as it announced for Arizona in 2025 [2]. It now blocks 25 states, shown on the US map.
For creators who use free clips to find paying fans, a block cuts that route off. One performer told The 19th that her free Pornhub videos served as a “referral funnel” to her paid pages, and that they now take longer to reach the same number of views, so fewer people see what she sells [3]. The 19th also reported that fewer people were viewing and paying for creators’ content, while small studios took on the cost of age-check software [3].
Checking IDs instead of blocking does not keep the audience either. Pornhub has stayed online in Louisiana with age checks, and Aylo told FOX 10 that its traffic there dropped about 80 percent after the law took effect [2]. That is the company’s own figure, not an independent measurement.
Where do viewers go when a big site leaves?
Partly to sites that do not check ages, if search data is a guide. A study published in the Journal of Law & Empirical Analysis in 2026 found that three months after a state’s law took effect, searches for the main compliant platform fell 51 percent, searches for the largest non-compliant site rose 48.1 percent, and searches for VPNs rose 23.6 percent [4]. The authors note that the study measures search interest, not visits [4].
If searches track behavior, attention a creator loses on a compliant platform does not simply vanish: part of it shifts to sites that do not check ages [4].
Which platforms verify viewers, and which block?
It depends on the platform and the place, and it changes often. As reported:
- Pornhub blocks most states with a law. In Louisiana it checks ages through LA Wallet, the state’s digital ID app [5]. In Ohio it stays open behind a click-through button, saying the law exempts it [6]. In Utah, a federal court found that Aylo’s paid sites still serve the state and verify every user, while its free sites block Utah IP addresses [7].
- Outside the US, Pornhub stopped admitting new users in the UK in February 2026 [8], then from May let back iPhone users who had confirmed their age through Apple’s built-in check [9].
- Other large sites have stayed open in some states with laws, and attorneys general have sued them. Florida’s attorney general sued the operators of XVideos and XNXX, among others, in August 2025 [10]. Kansas sued an operator of 13 sites that it said used no age verification [11].
- Small studios sometimes verify on their own. One independent studio told The 19th it first blocked some states, then added a third-party checker that its owner said costs 1 to 3 cents per verification [3].
Each state’s page has Pornhub’s current status there.
How do card networks and banks affect creators?
Card networks set their own rules for adult content, separate from any state law. In April 2021, Mastercard said banks that connect adult-content sellers to its network must certify that those sellers verify the age and identity of everyone who appears in or uploads content, document their consent, review content before publication, and offer complaint and appeal processes [12]. In practice, a platform that takes Mastercard has to hold ID and consent records for the people in its uploads [12].
Visa’s Integrity Risk Program, in force since May 2023, lists adult content as a “High Integrity Risk” category in its top tier [13]. Banks that process those payments must register with Visa and go through control assessments [13].
Banking pressure can move faster than legislation. In August 2021, OnlyFans said it would bar sexually explicit content from October 1, citing its banking and payment partners, then reversed course about a week later after securing assurances [14]. The 19th reported that independent studios have long had payment processors freeze their accounts [3].
Is 2257 record-keeping the same as age verification?
No. They cover different people. State age-verification laws make websites check that viewers are adults [1]. The federal record-keeping law, 18 U.S.C. § 2257, is about performers. Anyone who produces visual depictions of actual sexually explicit conduct must examine an ID document for every performer, record their name, date of birth and any other names they have used, keep those records at the business and make them available for inspection, and label each copy with where the records are kept [15]. A first violation can bring up to five years in prison [15]. Justice Department rules at 28 C.F.R. Part 75 set out how the records are kept, categorized, located and inspected [16].
Because the duty falls on whoever produces the content, creators who film and publish their own scenes can have 2257 obligations of their own, whatever a platform does about its viewers [15].
What does California’s AB 1705 require of uploaders?
California has no law requiring adult sites to check viewers’ ages, but it now has one aimed at uploads. AB 1705, by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, was signed on September 30, 2026, and takes effect on January 1, 2027 [17][18].
- Who it covers: websites that let users upload sexually explicit content [19].
- Operators: must take reasonable care that content does not show minors or people who did not consent to being depicted or to the upload, and must keep uploaders’ certifications for seven years [19].
- Uploaders: must certify each depicted person’s age and consent under penalty of perjury, and give a verified email address [19].
- Remedies: a person depicted can sue for up to $75,000 in statutory damages per violation, and public prosecutors can seek $25,000 per violation [19].
The law does not require sites to verify viewers’ ages [19].
What should creators ask a platform?
Platform policies change faster than laws, so it pays to ask directly:
- How do you check viewers’ ages: ID upload, face-based age estimation, a digital ID or a device-level check?
- In which states and countries do you block visitors instead, and how will you tell me when that list changes?
- If you leave a state, what happens to my subscribers there, their recurring payments and my payouts?
- What do you need from me to show the age and consent of everyone in my content, and who holds those records?
- Which payment processors do you use, and what happens to my earnings if one of them changes its adult-content rules?
- If you serve California, how will you collect AB 1705 certifications from January 2027?
Places in this guide
Louisiana · Ohio · Utah · California · United Kingdom