How Age Verification Laws Targeting Online Porn Could Be (And Should Be) Viewed As A Labor Rights Issue
from the new-approach dept
Age verification laws and regulations that target online pornography and digital sex work are far from being the “modest” child safety measures intended to protect public decency favored by the far–right.
Proponents of these laws benefit from the fearmongering and framing of age verification as a necessity to protect children from inappropriate material found on the internet. But often in the discourse, there’s a clear detachment between the political motivations of lawmakers and the realities of being a sex worker or working in a profession that is directly impacted by age verification laws targeting unfavored speech.
Because of the detachment, implications are far-reaching. Laws that require “age assurance” regimes are a clear impediment to labor and the ability of sex workers to legally earn income. There needs to be further discussion and analysis of age verification laws as a labor issue, in addition to the underlying contexts of free speech rights. While not a traditional “labor issue,” like union rights and equal pay, the government’s role in regulating and restricting forms of expression that can be produced, distributed, and monetized for entertainment media consumption is a dimension of the age-gating issue often overlooked and/or ignored.
Digital sex workers’ incomes and living conditions are dependent on platforms for content distribution. Sites like OnlyFans, Pornhub, xHamster, Chaturbate, and literally thousands more grant performers and content creators access to revenue generation opportunities that are remote, distributed, and confidential.
Due to these platforms forming the foundations of a trend-setting, technology-innovating, digitally native entertainment industry, age verification laws target digital sex workers’ means of distribution and, in a lot of cases, means of production. The overwhelming majority of adult content creators and adult performers are self-employed—classified as independent contractors and/or small business owners. Some performers have incorporated, with others adding trademarks and intellectual property protections on their branding.
Consider a few examples of adult content creators actively engaging in the activity of running a small business or self-employed enterprise. Platforms such as OnlyFans issue tax forms so that content creators can accurately report their income to the IRS and their state tax authorities. Or take the example of the performer-creator, going by the stage name Gigi Dior, duking it out with high-fashion house Christian Dior in front of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Activities and actions like these aren’t seen by the vast majority of consumers—or, importantly, the critics of the entire online adult ecosystem.
We all hear the “think of the children” mantra from the Helen Lovejoys of the world daily. We are seeing it now with Collective Shout teaming up with Visa and Mastercard to clamp down on NSFW gaming. We are seeing it in the United Kingdom with calls from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to ban certain types of pornography to comply with a broad interpretation of the Online Safety Act of 2023.
At least 40 percent of all United States residents live in jurisdictions with age verification laws. Millions of adult content creators are diverse and dynamic. Faced with all of these mounting regulatory pressures, adult entertainment performers and adult content creators—particularly those operating with marginalized identities—have developed a range of creative strategies to sustain their work, visibility, and autonomy in the national digital space. Inaccessibility is a legitimate issue that goes far beyond concerns of consumers.
While these laws are often framed as protecting children, the actual barrier they create is for adults — the lawful consumers who make up the legitimate market for adult entertainment. Under laws like Texas’s HB 1181, anyone wanting to access adult content must submit government-issued ID or sensitive personal data to a third-party vendor. Many adults are unwilling to do this, not because they wish to evade age restrictions, but because they don’t trust where that data will go, how it will be stored, or who might access it.
The result is that large numbers of adults — the only legal audience for these performers in the first place — stop visiting legitimate platforms altogether. That loss of audience directly translates into a loss of income for adult content creators. For an industry where the majority of workers are self-employed, often operating as small businesses, the shrinkage of the paying customer base is an existential threat.
This is why age verification mandates should also be seen as a labor rights issue. They are not simply regulating content; they are regulating the ability of consenting adults to transact with one another in a lawful marketplace. By forcing privacy-invasive hurdles onto the consumer side, these laws effectively shut down the market for legal adult work, undermining the economic stability of performers and driving audiences toward unregulated, unsafe spaces.
Protecting minors is essential, but there are less harmful ways to do it — including privacy-preserving age estimation, community moderation, and robust sex education. Until lawmakers acknowledge this labor dimension, age verification laws will continue to function as a political tool that erodes the rights and livelihoods of both workers and adult consumers.
Michael McGrady covers the tech and legal sides of the online porn business.
Filed Under: adult content, age verification, labor rights, sex work
Comments on “How Age Verification Laws Targeting Online Porn Could Be (And Should Be) Viewed As A Labor Rights Issue ”
For all the things to complain about.
This is the one thats kind stupid ON THEIR SIDE.
Sex work has hardly ever been regulated or restricted. Really dont think there is Much against it in the Bible.
The Biggest thing here is that PARENTS are supposed to know what is going on with their Child. As the GOP WANTS Mothers to stay home, and Fathers be the Bread winners, That isnt happening until they MAKE FAIR WAGE LAWS, as has been done in many other Countries.
AND (how to say this) Workers and their wages, Should have nothing to Do with Total profits and the TOP wages gained over the year.
Having SOMEONE(Father or Mother or OTHER family member) to watch over the Children is Fantastic. But how many families have REAL large family homes? We have been made so paranoid that we WONT trust anyone. And finding a Service to CARE for the Children? Costs as Much as a full time min wage person, PER CHILD. While other countries PAY for Child care. WE tend to FINE/Bill/Charge those with Children, EVERY way we can.
Im waiting for them to create enough Robots to take over More jobs and have another reason to Have Poor people, Cause WE ARNT being Subsidized.
Parents need to Watch over their OWN CHILDREN. Orther wise Who is INPUTING INFORMATION AND DOCTRINE into those Tiny brains.
I KNow!!! Democrats, Go and make Tons of locations for REASONABLE priced child care, For Multiple Age groups(like the Boy/Girl Scouts DID) AND TEACH THEM TO BE DEMOCRATS…(lets call them re-education camps)
Please parents, Become SMARTER then your child. And when they start asking about CERTAIN things,, TALK to them and explain. (YOU DONT WANT THEM going out and finding SOME OTHER ADUT TO SHOW THEM, and taking advantage).
This will never go anywhere. They wont listen.
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Sex work has hardly ever been regulated or restricted
They say it is the oldest profession. I beg to differ.
Begging is the oldest profession. I mean someone had to want it bad enough to pay for it…
Re: Re: well
Child care. 1st.
Not very good child care. But they arnt blaming God or the nearest City cop/;school/church/.
The same conservatives who tout personal liberty, rugged individualism, and self-responsibility are only too eager to demonstrate their hypocrisy by making everyone else besides parents responsible for their children.
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“They’d call us gypsies, tramps, and thieves
But every night all the men would come around
And lay their money down”
Looks like the GOP has finally realized that they had to take away the ability for the men to lay their money down.
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And the same liberals who tout Internet liberty, free from government control/censorship — blindly support very extensive FCC content regulation/censorship of TV and Radio.
Hypocrisy is extremely common among any and all political partisans — narrow thinking eases the burden of actual rational thinking.
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Notice that you jumped to both sidesing about liberals as if any mention of conservatives must be countered with a complementary example about liberals. There are more than two sides and far more nuance than what you’ve suggested. The irony that you talk about narrow thinking while both sidesing is wild.
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you post here often and your strong bias is obvious
Re: Re: Re:2
I should hope my bias against conservatives is obvious. I tout it often and bring the receipts.
But I’m also not a liberal. As I said, there are more than two sides. Pushing your false dichotomy is myopic.
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Three questions.