Aylo, the online pornography giant that operates Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn, will block access to its content in France starting Wednesday, June 4, in the afternoon, it said Tuesday at a press conference. The move continues a series of actions taken in recent years by the leading porn company, which has strongly opposed laws requiring it to verify the age of visitors to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content.
Instead of the usual homepage on the three sites, French users will see a lobbying message accusing France of endangering consumers' privacy by imposing intrusive and unreliable age verification mechanisms. Most specialized audience measurement services rank Pornhub among the top five most visited websites in France.
Since July 2020, French law has required porn site publishers to take measures to ensure that users viewing adult photos and videos are of legal age. It is no longer sufficient for users to simply click on a declaration of good faith, as was previously the industry standard.
Aylo, along with some other voices in the porn industry, has argued that it should not be up to the sites themselves to carry out age checks, but rather that the verification should happen at the level of the user's smartphone or computer, effectively passing the responsibility to Apple, Google and Microsoft.
For nearly five years, French authorities and part of the adult entertainment industry have been at odds over whether such measures can actually be implemented. France's media regulator, ARCOM, recently published a technical guide for publishers, highlighting methods it considers to be respectful of privacy.
While age verification is a veritable technical challenge, for Pornhub it also represents a near-fatal economic blow: Like most major free streaming platforms, Aylo's success has been built on massive, free, one-click access to pornographic content, relying on advertising revenue. Unlike paid platforms, the group could suffer a potentially severe drop in traffic.
Possibility of being blocked by ARCOM
The timing of this decision was not chosen at random: Starting June 6, ARCOM will be able to issue formal notices to pornography sites that fail to comply with the law, even if they are hosted in another European Union country – as is the case for Aylo's network. The French law on securing and regulating the digital space, known as SREN, allows ARCOM to subsequently ask internet service providers to block non-compliant sites without going through a court decision.
Over the past two years, Aylo has already selectively blocked its sites in several US states that have adopted laws requiring age verification, which the company deemed impossible to implement under acceptable conditions. According to the company's figures, France is the second-largest country in the world for traffic to its main site, Pornhub, which claims 7 million daily visitors in France.
Pornhub has been at the center of multiple controversies over the last decade, including serious moderation failures, hosting illegal content or revenge porn, as well as pirated copies of videos.
The group, which has acquired rival sites and several content production studios over time – including sector heavyweight Brazzers – was bought in 2023 by a consortium of Canadian investors, Ethical Capital Partners, and says it has significantly changed its practices.