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Euractiv
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Euractiv
Major blow to Pornhub as France's highest court re-introduces age verification
France's state council has overruled a Paris administrative court ruling to suspend a government decree on 15 July – meaning that all porn websites offering services in France must verify their users' age. The ruling from the state council on Tuesday comes only weeks after the Paris administrative court suspended a governmental decree requiring age verification for EU-based porn websites in June. Today's decision is the latest development in the dispute championed by French Digital Minister Clara Chappaz, affecting adult websites including Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube which are owned by Cyprus-based company Aylo as well as xhamster-owner Hammy Media. "The State Council has decided: the law has to be followed," wrote Chappaz on X. But the council's ruling only suspends the June court decision and does not pre-empt the forthcoming preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). The CJEU must determine whether the French government's decree requiring EU-based porn companies to comply with national law conflicts with EU law. In short, this is merely a temporary victory for Chappaz, as the CJEU could still annul the French government's decree for failure to comply with EU law. It remains unclear whether Aylo will shut down its websites in France, as it did in June to protest enforcement of the French SREN law – the law the government decree aimed at enforcing. The European Commission on Monday proposed new guidelines to protect minors online. France claimed victory, saying the Commission's proposal enshrined its own approach mandating age verification for accessing pornographic website throughout the EU. Aylo did not respond to a request for a comment at the time of reporting. (vib)
Miami Herald
26-06-2025
- Miami Herald
Major pornography sites to implement age verification in Britain
June 26 (UPI) -- Pornhub and other major pornographic websites plan to implement age verification practices in Britain by the end of July in order to comply with a newly implemented Online Safety Act. Aylo the parent company of Pornhub and various other pornography sharing websites and filming studios said it plans to implement "government approved age assurance methods" by July 25. The Online Safety Act deadline requires pornographic websites to implement "robust" age verification methods by that date or face fines. The company did not specify what methods it would implement but British regulator Ofcom has listed several acceptable methods, including facial age estimation, open banking, digital identity services, credit card age checks, email-based age estimation, mobile network operator age checks, and photo ID-matching. "Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren't suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling," said Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's group director of online safety, in a statement. "Now, change is happening. These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s." New Ofcom research found that 8% of children between the ages of 8 and 14 accessed a porngraphy site or app over a 28-day period, including 19% boys and 11% of girls from 13 to 14 years old. It also found that 3% of 8 to 9-year-olds -- the youngest demographic in the study -- had accessed pornography during the survey period. "We know that highly effective age assurance can play a vital role in protecting young users from accessing harmful and inappropriate material on social media and other platforms," said Rani Govender, policy manager for child safety online at the NSPCC. "It is time tech companies take responsibility for ensuring children have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and we welcome the progress that Ofcom are making in this space," continued Govender. According to data from Similiarweb, Pornhub is the most visited porn site around the world. Aylo's vice president of brand and community Alex Kekesi said Ofcom age verification steps were less intrusive compared to ones that have been pushed for before. "Ofcom recognizes the scale of the challenge ahead and is approaching it with thorough consideration," she said. The regulations require that the verification methods don't impede adults from accessing legal pornographic content or put their private information at risk. Marcus Johnstone from PCD Solicitors said that age checks may not address the problem but instead would bring more attention to the dark web. "I have cases where clients as young as 14 access the dark web," he added. "In one case, my client, aged 15, accessed the dark web to buy drugs but also then found access to extreme illegal pornography." "Any teenager with a phone can now watch and read content that is both illegal and heinous, and is unregulated by any company or agency." "It is the dark web that is the greatest menace to our society and is a gateway to a world of abuse, exploitation and radicalisation. This is where better policing is required." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Telegraph
26-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Porn sites to introduce strict age checks within weeks
Pornhub, the world's biggest pornography site, has agreed to introduce age verification checks in the UK within weeks in a bid to block children from accessing adult videos. Aylo, the website's parent company, confirmed it would introduce 'government-approved age assurance' technology on to its websites by July 25. On Thursday, Ofcom said more than a dozen major porn sites had agreed to implement the checks. The regulator has demanded sites introduce 'highly effective' age checks. Some of the possible measures could include asking for photo ID or using a smartphone app to estimate age. Previous checks, like tick-box-style age declarations, will no longer be allowed. Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's group director of online safety, said: 'For too long, children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online. 'Now, change is happening. These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s.' Ofcom said it had found that 8pc of children aged between eight and 14 visited a porn site each month. Around 3pc of eight to nine-year-olds reported visiting pornography sites. It found that 19pc of boys aged 13 to 14 used pornography sites, compared to 11pc of girls the same age. Ofcom has already ordered online pornography publishers to introduce age checks, but the new checks will also apply to sites allowing self-published adult content and social media. It comes after Aylo blocked access to Pornhub in France and several US states over what the Canadian business claimed were overly intrusive or risky age checks demanded by politicians. The Pornhub owner said it had 'publicly called for effective and enforceable age assurance solutions that protect minors online, while ensuring the safety and privacy of all users'. It said: 'The United Kingdom is the first country to present these same priorities demonstrably. Our conversations with Ofcom have been constructive and solution-focused.' Aylo did not say what type of checks it would introduce next month. It had said that checks proposed in France, which would have required an ID or credit card, represented a privacy risk. It blocked access to the site in the country earlier this month, although Pornhub returned to the country last week after a court suspended new rules on age verification.
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Pornhub to introduce 'government approved' UK age checks
Aylo, the owner of adult sites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube, says it will introduce "government approved age assurance methods" in the company has not yet revealed how it will require users to prove they are over 18, but UK regulator Ofcom says simply clicking a button, which is all the adult site currently requires, is not has resisted age checks elsewhere, including in France - where it recently suspended its site amid a battle over the country's age verification the Online Safety Act pornographic sites must introduce "robust" age checking techniques, such as demanding photo ID or running credit card checks for UK users, by this summer. Aylo said it would introduce the new methods to check user ages on its sites by 25 is the most visited porn site in the world, according to data from Similarweb. It has been under scrutiny by regulators worldwide over its measures to prevent children accessing its European Commission announced an investigation into Pornhub, along with two other adult platforms, at the end of the UK, Ofcom is probing several adult sites it believes may be failing to abide by its child safety a statement, Aylo's vice president of brand and community Alex Kekesi said Ofcom presented a variety of flexible methods of age assurance that were less intrusive than those it had seen in other jurisdictions."Ofcom recognises the scale of the challenge ahead and is approaching it with thorough consideration," he regulator's model is "the most robust in terms of actual and meaningful protection we've seen to date," he added."When governments and regulators engage with industry in good faith, the outcome is not just better compliance, it's smarter, more effective solutions".But the statement does not yet reveal what methods the site will actually employ to check users has been approached for comment.
The Hindu
21-06-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Big-name porn sites back online in France after age check row
Major adult websites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube were back online in France Friday after a court suspended a decision requiring pornographic platforms based in the EU to verify users' ages. France has gradually introduced requirements this year for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details such as a credit card or ID document. The aim is to prevent minors from accessing pornography. But the Paris administrative tribunal on Monday suspended a government decree while investigating whether it was compatible with EU legislation. The French government has shared its intention to appeal to the Council of State, the country's highest administrative court. The three platforms' owner, Aylo, said the decree's suspension was an "opportunity to reconsider more efficient approaches" to age verification. Aylo, based in Cyprus, had made its websites unavailable in France in early June as a protest against the French decree. Failure to comply could have lead to sanctions including fines or the blocking of the websites. Aylo argued that this was an ineffective mechanism that exposed people's data to bad actors, hacks or leaks. "Requiring you to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users," the company said in a message displayed on the sites' homepages earlier this month. About 40% of children in France access to porn sites every month, according to a 2024 study by France's Arcom audiovisual watchdog. In a bid to preserve privacy, the government decree also required operators to offer a third-party "double-blind" option that would prevent the platforms from seeing users' identifying information. Aylo, which reports seven million visitors in France daily across its various platforms, has called instead for governments to require makers of operating systems such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to verify users' ages at the level of individual devices. The platform also argues that the French law "diverts users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations" and fails to moderate videos for issues such as the age and consent of performers. Other countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany also enforce age-related access restrictions to adult websites.
