How to watch porn in Utah (and protect your privacy)

Utah passed legislation (S.B. 287) in May 2023, forcing adult sites to ask users for photo IDs before granting access. There are several issues with this bill. Firstly, many people won’t be comfortable providing their driver’s license to a company they know nothing about. This concern has left many people asking – how can I watch porn in Utah without compromising my privacy?

Additionally, there’s no way to create a hack-proof system. A list of everyone who’s verified their age could be leaked, stolen, or sold, leading to real-world repercussions for some people. There’s precedent for this, too. In 2015, hackers released details of everyone who had signed up to Ashley Madison, a site dedicated to facilitating extra-marital affairs.

Luckily for privacy-conscious adults, it’s extremely easy to spoof your location and continue accessing porn sites like you’ve always done. All you have to do is connect to a Virtual Private Network (VPN), making it seem like you’re in a different state. This removes the age verification requirement. Since VPNs encrypt your internet traffic, your ISP and government won’t be able to see which sites you visit.

How to get around Utah’s adult content restrictions with a VPN

Follow these steps to remain anonymous and bypass the Utah porn ban:

1. Start by signing up for a reputable VPN. We recommend NordVPN – it’s fast, user-friendly, and secure and works with almost every streaming service we’ve tested.
2. Log into the app and choose a server in a state that doesn’t have any age verification requirements. Alternatively, connect to a Canadian server, which removes the need to consider state-specific legislation entirely.
3. Wait a moment until you’re connected. Your IP address should now be pointing to a location outside of Utah, which tells adult sites there’s no need to verify your age.
4. We can test this by visiting a site like Pornhub. If you still can’t access content, clear your cookies and refresh the page. You may also want to try a different server or contact your VPN’s support team for more advice.

What exactly is the Utah porn ban?

Utah’s porn ban is officially known as S.B. 287 Online Pornography Viewing Age Requirements. It specifically states that sites whose content is more than 33.3 percent composed of adult material must obtain photo ID to verify users are over the age of 18 or become liable “for damages resulting from a minor’s accessing the material”. In other words, the parents could sue whichever site failed to enforce the restrictions.

You’ll notice something interesting about this bill: it is just 115 lines long and would be even shorter if not for the complex legal language used. In other words, it sets out what it wants but fails to detail how this change will be affected or what kind of licenses will be accepted. The bill also relies on personal interpretation, requiring someone to decide whether “the material taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”

There’s even a strange loophole that allows organizations to broadcast pornography as part of legitimate reporting or informational broadcasts, even if they’d usually be subject to this law. The bill appears to be almost an afterthought with very little consideration.

Of course, this is just the latest of the Beehive State’s attempts to crack down on pornography. In 2021, it passed H.B. 72 Device Filter Amendments, which required all cell phones and tablets sold in Utah to enable an adult content filter. However, this law doesn’t take effect until five other states pass similar measures.

How does Utah’s online age verification system work?

The only stipulations present in S.B. 287 are that:

• ID must contain “all of the data elements visible on the face and back of a license or identification card and displays the current status of the license or identification card.”
• Age-verification companies must compare this information to databases “regularly used by government agencies and businesses for the purpose of age and identity verification” OR use “any commercially reasonable method” to verify a user’s age, which may include examining mortgage, educational, or employment records.
• Organizations performing these checks may not retain identifying information about any individual after granting access. In other words, you’ll have to verify yourself every single time you want to stream adult content.

There are many potential problems, even assuming adult sites check the user’s IP address (similar to how sites like Netflix determine your location).

For instance:

• A minor could use their parent’s ID to access adult sites
• Minors could bypass these restrictions with the use of VPNs or proxies
• People switch to using adult sites that aren’t based in the US
• Age-verification companies could inadvertently store personally identifiable data
• Age-verification companies could be hacked, meaning bad actors get their hands on personally identifiable information
• The inherent unreliability of IP address geo-location causes people living near Utah’s border (but not IN Utah) to have to verify their age
• To claim an adult site, parents must first realize that their child has accessed it. They then have to prove damages in court.
• There will inevitably be disagreements over whether a site’s content has artistic or scientific merit

What has the response been to Utah’s new adult content laws?

As you might expect, porn sites aren’t particularly pleased. Pornhub started blocking users in Utah preemptively, displaying a press release that raises concerns about privacy and this bill pushing users towards sites with fewer safety measures in place.

There hasn’t been any public polling at the time of writing, so we can’t tell what the average resident thinks. However, we know that Google searches for “VPN” have spiked since this bill passed. In fact, it’s actually the state that searched for this term the most over the last week, which is surprising given that California alone has around 13 times the population.

On the plus side, this law is already being challenged. The Free Speech Coalition (an adult industry trade association) has brought an appeal, claiming that S.B. 287 violates the First Amendment rights of porn providers. This isn’t meritless, as the Supreme Court has previously struck down similar legislation for similar reasons, including in Ashcroft v. ACLU and Reno v. ACLU.

Utah porn ban FAQs

Related:

• How to beat the US porn ban
• How to watch porn in North Carolina
• How to watch porn in Florida
• How to watch porn in Kentucky