Countries Where Porn Is Illegal 2024

Is pornographic material free speech that should be protected, or is it obscenity and even a public health concern? While we all have our own personal opinions, the countries in which we live have the final legal say in the matter—and some countries have deemed pornography not only immoral, but also illegal. Countries like the United States and Canada have little-to-no censorship thanks to laws guaranteeing free speech and the ways the courts interpret those laws. Other countries are much more stringent, and some go so far as to censor or block pornography on the internet. Censorship laws tend to correlate strongly with countries' levels of overall freedom.

Countries with the most restrictive internet and pornography laws

North Korea has the highest level of censorship of any country in the world. The government censors everything moving into, out of, or around the country, including all news sources, media outlets, and social media. Pornography is not allowed. In case people think they can outsmart the government and use a virtual protected network (VPN) to access porn, think again. The government censors VPNs, too.

The communist country China employs the world's second-most-restrictive censorship levels. Along with most Western social media, political news, and VPNs, pornography is censored through the "Great Firewall of China", also known as the Golden Shield Project. A few sites or VPNs pierce the shield from time to time, but these are often blocked shortly after they are discovered.

Iran censors news media and most social media, including Facebook, and pornography is not available. Many other Muslim-majority countries, including Qatar, Syria, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Oman, Eritrea, and the United Arab Emirates, take a similar approach, mainly to protect the countries’ Islamic values. VPNs can often be accessed, though, so people in those countries can get around government censorship.

Russia blocks many internet sites, including many (but not all) pornography sites. The general rule in Russia is that viewing pornography is not illegal but producing it is. VPNs are blocked in Russia, too. Similarly, many governments in many countries across Africa and Asia (along with the communist country of Cuba, off the coast of Florida) censor and heavily restrict access to pornographic websites. Thailand, for example, instituted a ban on online pornography in 2019. People in these countries may still access restricted material, but it would require them to use a VPN.

Many governments believe that censoring pornography is necessary to keep children safe, both when they are browsing the internet and when they may be at risk of being trafficked. For example, this is the basis for the United Kingdom's mild restriction that sites which distribute pornography must require a user to verify their age in order to access the site's content.

Should pornography be censored, regulated, or made illegal?

There is significant controversy about whether governments should censor or at least regulate pornographic websites. Pornography addiction is not yet recognized by most medical organizations as a "true" addiction such as drug addiction or alcoholism. However, studies have indicated that widespread access to pornography can negatively affect an individual's mental wellness, the health of couples' marriages, and even the economy as a whole (in lost work hours and, in extreme cases, therapy). The production of pornography can also exploit the performers—most of whom are women and some of whom are still children—who participate in it, in some cases against their will. Nevertheless, some governments are hesitant to censor, regulate, or outlaw pornography (so long as it does not involve illegal acts such as bestiality or statutory rape), for fear of impinging upon free speech.