It’s Difficult (but Not Impossible) to Regulate Online Porn
A study looks at the effects of age verification.
- By
- October 29, 2026
- CBR - Public Policy
Ever since the advent of dial-up internet in the 1990s, the unfettered nature of the World Wide Web has brought its advantages as well as its hazards. Local and national governments have tried to install guardrails, but enterprising internet users have found their way around countless blocked websites and paywalls—even China’s Great Firewall.
A recent attempt at regulation in the United States involves age restrictions for one of the most popular and frequently banned forms of internet content: pornography. Research by University of Chicago’s Matthew Brown, Notre Dame PhD student Emily Davis, and Chicago Booth’s Devin G. Pope finds that laws meant to protect minors have deterred some porn use—but also highlight why regulation can be challenging.
Since 2023, 25 US states have passed age verification laws for online porn sites, which require users to provide proof that they’re at least 18 years old, usually with a government-issued identification.
Porn sites have responded to the laws differently. Pornhub, the world’s most popular porn site, has blocked access for all users in restricted states regardless of age, saying that verification requires submitting personally identifiable information and makes users vulnerable to identity theft.
Others have thus far ignored the laws. The researchers explain that these sites may be taking advantage of the legal difficulties in enforcing bans, particularly on companies based outside the US. This is the case for two popular sites owned by WGCZ, a Czech holding company.
Brown, Davis, and Pope looked at what happened in a state before and after a law was in place. They also compared that with online activity in states without age restrictions.
The limits of online restrictions
The researchers analyzed high-frequency data from the media analytics company Comscore covering the individual online activity of about 500,000 US desktop and mobile users. The study included data from 2022 to 2024, a period during which age restriction laws went into effect in 15 states.
In the first eight weeks following the enactment of an age-restriction law, online porn consumption declined by about 10 percent, the researchers find. Pornhub saw a 54 percent drop in user consumption, the analysis finds.
But the latter decrease highlights just what makes regulation so challenging. For every 100 hours previously spent looking at porn, users spent 50 hours on sites that, unlike Pornhub, didn’t comply with the laws, according to the study. They spent another 30 hours circumventing age restrictions with the assistance of virtual private networks, about 10 hours looking at nonadult websites, and 10 hours on porn sites that they hadn’t used to frequent but subsequently did because of availability.
The researchers note a few caveats to these findings: They didn’t have access to data from private browsing sessions, such as those using Google Chrome’s incognito mode. Also, the vast majority of the data came from desktop computers while, according to Pornhub statistics, most of its users prefer to look at porn sites on their phones. Finally, while the researchers broke down user data by age group, they didn’t have data on the teenage years specifically. They write that the behavior of young adults (18–24 years old) provides useful insights into how the laws affect teens.
Nonetheless, Brown, Davis, and Pope write that their study provides evidence of the ways age-verification laws affect online behavior. If future attempts at internet regulation are going to be successful, they add, legislators will need to anticipate how restrictions can be circumvented.
Matthew Brown, Emily Davis, and Devin G. Pope, “Can Online Activity Be Regulated? Evidence from Adult Websites,” Working paper, June 2026.
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