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Despite being temporarily blocked by a federal judge, Tennessee’s new porn law officially took effect on January 13, 2025. Starting that date, all pornographic sites are required to verify the age of their users and prevent access to minors. Even though the new law has noble intentions, it goes against the essential online privacy principles.
In the long term, collecting highly sensitive information, such as government-issued IDs, could lead to potential issues. For example, in the case of a data breach, your porn-watching habits could surface online. However, a VPN can help bypass this issue, which we’ll explain in this article.
This guide will help you understand Tennessee’s new porn law and how it affects your digital privacy. We’ll also talk about using a VPN to bypass the porn ban, give you some recommendations, and answer some pressing FAQs as well.
The state’s new porn-related legislation affects residents, businesses, and adult content platforms. Even though it might seem simple at first glance, it has significant implications for everyone involved. So, let’s explain everything you need to know.
Known as the “Protect Tennessee Minors Act” (HB 1614/SB 1792), this recently enacted legislation forces websites to prevent access to minors through age verification checks. This applies to websites with at least one-third adult content, which can be in the form of videos, images, or animations.
As the law's authors explained, these restrictions are needed to prevent minors from seeing potentially dangerous content online. As the authors added, sexually explicit content could cause minors to develop a distorted view of people’s sexuality and even normalize sexual abuse.
Like in many other states in the US, Tennessee’s new porn ban is enforced through an age verification check. More precisely, the law mentions “a commercially reasonable method relying on public or private transactional data to verify that the age of the person attempting to access the information is at least 18 or over.”
There’s no explicit way for adult websites to implement an age verification check. Judging by what happened in Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Florida, and Virginia, these could be AI-powered checks, government-issued ID verification, or using third-party verification services.
The “Protect Tennessee Minors Act” imposes no penalties for individuals who try to bypass it. However, it imposes significant penalties for non-compliance. That includes criminal penalties carrying a prison sentence ranging from 3 to 15 years and fines up to $10,000.
Civil liability is also involved, as entities found in violation may be liable for damages resulting from a minor’s access to harmful content. Lastly, it’s also worth noting that there are data retention violations, as Tennessee requires porn sites to keep anonymized age-verification data for at least seven years.
Most adult websites are no longer available in Tennessee as they refuse to implement age checks. As per their reasoning, Tennessee’s latest porn legislation is justified, but it asks them to introduce data logging measures, which would affect their users’ privacy.
Websites like PornHub, RedTube, Tube8, PornTune, YouPorn, and countless more now display a message for users coming from Tennessee. They warn that the new state law will “put children and your privacy at risk.” They also add that “mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply” and say that “this just drives traffic to sites with far fewer safety measures.”
There are still a handful of sites that work in the state, requiring no age checks, like xVideos, XNXX, and PornDoe. However, they might stop serving users from this region any day now, as these sites risk hefty fines.
Here’s a list of the most popular porn sites in the US, where you can check whether they’re still accessible in Tennese as of March 2025:
A VPN is the only way to regain access to porn in Tennessee without having to go through age checks. In other words, it allows you to do two things: to unblock any porn site and preserve your privacy by allowing you to bypass data logging procedures.
A high-end VPN for porn comes with additional benefits. For example, it keeps trackers at bay, ensuring your Internet provider doesn’t see what you do online. That means your porn-watching habits will remain private, as they should be. Here’s more information:
Remember that every VPN is different in terms of its features, performance, and data logging practices. Based on our experience of testing dozens of VPNs, our first recommendation is NordVPN, as it’s the only VPN that ticks all the right boxes.
It takes just a few moments to bypass the Tennessee porn ban – connect to a VPN server in a region without mandatory age verification. Here’s what you need to do:
We can all agree that preventing minors from accessing content unsuitable for their age is a wise decision. However, Tennessee’s latest porn legislation is privacy-intruding, especially since it requires third parties to keep your sensitive data logged for seven years. On top of that, you could be affected by data breaches or data leaks down the line.
Luckily, there’s a way to regain privacy on the Web, and yes, we’re talking about VPNs. In addition to unblocking porn sites in Tennessee, they help you circumvent age checks. Since you won’t need to upload your government-issued ID, you’ll eliminate the risk of future problematic situations.
Finally, we’ll remind you that NordVPN is the best option right now. It offers a series of features that keep you private, safe, and secure online. Plus, it’s perhaps the most private VPN you’ll find today, ensuring your browsing history remains a secret to your Internet provider and third parties.
That’s all our team has prepared for this guide. If there’s anything else you’d like to know, post your comment below. Thanks for reading!