AUSTIN (KXAN) — Popular adult entertainment website Pornhub on Thursday passed state age verification laws that require online porn distributors to use age verification methods to ensure all users are 18 or older. and blocked access to Texas.
Texans who tried to access the site were shown a message explaining why the content was unavailable.
In response to this announcement, SlashGear, a company covering the technology industry, collected data showing how Google's search trends have been affected.
The methods used in this study included using Google Trends to analyze search growth data for terms related to VPN, Texas, and Pornhub.
According to the data collected, searches for “Texas VPN” have increased by 1,750% in the past day.
According to SlashGear, searches for “Is porn banned in Texas” have increased by 3,100%, and search trends for “how to access Pornhub” have also increased by 1,600%.
“Many people are looking for well-known or paid VPN brands like Proton VPN, Tunnelbear, Mullvad, and Windscribe, while others are looking for free options,” says SlashGear. “In fact, the day after this news, searches for 'free VPN for iPhone' and 'free VPN' on Google increased by 450% and 80%.”
According to the data collected, location-specific search terms also increased by more than 1,500%. The most searched terms included “Texas VPN,” “VPN Texas,” “Pornhub shutdown,” and “Pornhub block.”
According to Google Trends, the most popular VPN-related location in Texas over the past day was the Austin metropolitan area, followed by Houston, San Angelo, and Dallas-Fort Loaders. Worth, and Waco-Temple-Bryan.