Pornhub exits France over age verification law

CNN

2 days ago

The owner of Pornhub has suspended access to its website in France because of its objections to a new French law requiring pornographic sites to verify the age of their users, the country's communications regulator said Tuesday.
Arcom, the regulator, said in a statement that adult entertainment company Aylo had chosen to 'shirk the requirement of protecting minors' enshrined digital regulations 'by suspending access to its content in France, including for adults.'
That's despite the 'numerous technical solutions on the market (allowing) users' age to be verified while ensuring the protection of their personal data,' the regulator added.
Aylo runs several pornography sites and is owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. Reuters cited a spokesperson for Pornhub on Tuesday as saying that Aylo had also suspended access in France to its sites YouPorn and Redtube.
In 2024, France accounted for the second-biggest audience for Pornhub on a daily basis behind the United States, according to the website.
Last year, France enacted a law mandating that pornographic sites implement stricter age-verification technology. That could include asking users to provide their bank card details, Arcom said in an October document detailing aspects of the law's implementation.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, Aylo has previously argued that users' ages should be checked from their device — such as their smartphone or computer — and should thus be the responsibility of tech companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft, rather than the pornography sites themselves.
Neither Aylo nor Ethical Capital Partners immediately responded to a request for comment from CNN.
Aurore Bergé, French gender equality minister, said in a post on X on Tuesday that Aylo's decision meant 'there will be less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France.'
'Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube refuse to comply with our legal framework and decide to leave. Good!' she said.
Around the world, jurisdictions are ramping up efforts to protect minors online.
In the United States, 19 states — home to more than a third of Americans — have in recent years passed laws requiring pornographic sites to confirm a user's age by checking a government-issued ID or scanning their face, among other methods.
The laws have led some of the largest adult sites, including Pornhub, to block users from those states, rather than paying millions for ID-checking services.
And, last week, the European Commission launched an investigation into Pornhub and three other major adult websites, accusing them of not complying with regulations designed to protect minors from accessing pornography.
The bloc's executive body said in a statement lat week that it is developing an age-verification app to allow people to prove they are older than 18 without revealing other information about themselves online.
Catherine Nicholls, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan and Allison Morrow contributed reporting.