This article originally appeared on VICE Australia.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte—the alleged fentanyl addict leading a bloodthirsty war on drugs who last year famously called Barack Obama a “son of a whore”—is now leading a new crusade: against PornHub.
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Speaking on behalf of Duterte, Philippines Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told journalists over the weekend that PornHub had contravened the country’s strict Anti-Child pornography laws. PornHub, which claims to have never hosted child pornography, has been geo-blocked within the Philippines by all major ISPs since Saturday.
It’s unlikely to be a coincidence that PornHub recently released viewing statistics that revealed Filipino porn viewers are spending more time there than anyone else in the world. Filipinos spend an average of 12 minutes and 45 seconds enjoying PornHub content, compared to South Africans in second place who spend an average of 10 minutes and 46 seconds. It’s the third year running that Filipino users have watched the most amount of PornHub.
PornHub isn’t the only porn site that viewers from the Philippines will no longer have access to. Xvideos, Redtube, and a host of smaller sites have been banned since the weekend.
“We don’t want our youth and even the adults to be addicted to lewd videos shown in the internet,” Andanar said on behalf of the President. “This website has been ordered blocked under authority of the Philippine government pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law.”
Duterte isn’t the first world leader to outlaw online pornography. Citizens of Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia, Cuba, Iceland, Thailand, Egypt, and Pakistan all face an uphill battle when it comes to accessing online porn.
In response to Duterte’s ban, PornHub has expressed its fears that those seeking child pornography in the Philippines will still be able to find it. “Non-consensual and child pornography is strictly prohibited on PornHub. It’s disappointing that PornHub was blocked as it will just drive people to use less vetted, riskier, smaller websites. We’re open to working with government officials to meet their standards in the Philippines,” a spokesperson from the website told The Daily Mail.
The kicker? The age of sexual consent in the Philippines is just 12 years.
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