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Euronews
6 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
Pornhub suspends access in France in protest over age verification law
The owner of Pornhub, RedTube and YouTube has blocked access to the adult platforms in France, in protest against a law requiring porn sites to verify the age of their users. Parent company Aylo said it would stop operating in France as of Wednesday, having criticised the French government's measures to shield children from inappropriate content by making porn platforms take extra steps to ensure that users are 18 or older. "I can confirm that Aylo has made the difficult decision to suspend access to its user-uploaded platforms (Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube) in France. We will be using our platforms to directly address the French public,' a Pornhub spokesperson said on Tuesday. Under France's so-called SREN law, which was passed in 2023, adult content platforms have until Saturday to implement age verification measures. French media regulator Arcom can request that porn sites are blocked and issue fines if it finds their checks are lacking. Solomon Friedman, a partner at Ethical Capital Partners, which owns Aylo, told reporters in a briefing call on Tuesday that the law was "ineffective", "dangerous", and "potentially privacy-infringing". "It's a matter of putting our values first, and that means communicating directly with the French people to tell them what their government is refusing to tell them," he said, in reference to a message that Aylo's platforms will display to French users on Wednesday. Aurore Bergé, French minister for gender equality, wrote "au revoir" in a post on X in response to Aylo's statement. "There will be less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France," she wrote. Clara Chappaz, France's junior minister for artificial intelligence and digital technology, said on X: "If Aylo would rather leave France than apply our laws, they are free to do so." European Union regulators announced last week that they were investigating four major porn websites over suspected breaches of the bloc's online content rules, which include provisions for protecting children from pornographic material. These include risks that age verification measures deployed by the sites are ineffective. The European Commission said it has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Safety Act. Aylo said last week that it was aware of the investigation and was "fully committed" to ensuring online safety of children. XNXX, Stripchat and XVideos did not comment. A court in El Salvador has sentenced three former senior military officers to 15 years in prison for the killing of four Dutch journalists in 1982. Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemson were killed in an ambush by the Salvadoran army in the northern province of Chalatenango while filming a documentary about the Central American country's civil war, which lasted from 1980 until 1992. Late on Tuesday, a five-person jury in a Chalatenango court found three former top military officials guilty over their deaths after a trial that was closed to the public. The convicted men were former Defence Minister José Guillermo García, 91, former Treasury Police Director Francisco Morán, 93, and Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, 85, the former army commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade in Chalatenango. García and Morán remain under a police guard at a private hospital in the capital San Salvador, while Reyes Mena lives in the US. The Salvadoran Supreme Court started extradition proceedings in March to bring him back to face justice. García was deported from the US in 2016, with a US judge declaring him responsible for serious human rights violations during the Salvadoran civil war. Óscar Pérez, lawyer for the Foundation Comunicandonos that represented the victims' families, said prosecutors had requested a minimum 15-year prison sentence for all three men. Shortly before they were killed, the four Dutch reporters, who were making a documentary for Ikon TV, had joined up with guerrillas to film behind enemy lines. Salvadoran soldiers armed with assault rifles and machine guns then ambushed them and the guerrillas. Pérez told reporters that there was 'sufficient proof' that 'deliberate and well-planned military action' led to the Dutch journalists' killings. The same assessment was also made by the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador after the end of the civil war. The lawyer added that the judge in the case also condemned the Salvadoran government, ordering President Nayib Bukele to apologise publicly to the victims in his role as head of the country's armed forces. Juan Carlos Sánchez, from the NGO Mesa Contra la Impunidad, said the trial was a 'transcendental step that the victims have waited 40 years for'. The prosecution of the military officials was relaunched in 2018, after the country's highest court ruled that the general post-civil war amnesty was unconstitutional. In March 2022, relatives of the victims as well as representatives of the Dutch government and the EU demanded that the suspects be tried. Some of the men accused of being involved in the killings had already died, including Mario Canizales Espinoza, who was believed to have led the patrol that carried out the massacre. Some 75,000 Salvadoran civilians were killed during the civil war, most of whom died at the hands of the US-backed government security forces.
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First Post
7 days ago
- General
- First Post
Pornhub suspends porn in France over new age-verification law
This year, France has introduced requirements for all adult content websites to verify their users' age using details from credit cards or government documents read more Pornographic websites Pornhub and YouPorn have launched a campaign against the French government Pornographic websites Pornhub and YouPorn have launched a campaign against the French government after it introduced a law mandating the sites to take extra steps to verify users' age. Aylo, parent company of both websites, said it will stop streaming in France starting Wednesday (June 4) and instead will show a message denouncing the law. Solomon Friedman of Aylo's owner, Ethical Capital Partners, told reporters the purpose of the move is to tell the French people 'how dangerous, how potentially privacy-infringing, and how ineffective the French law is". STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD What is France's new age verification law? This year, France has introduced requirements for all adult content websites to verify their users' age using details from credit cards or government documents. The law says the websites must offer a third-party 'double-blind' option that would keep the platforms themselves from seeing users' identifying information. Aylo says move 'ineffective' Aylo maintains the move is not only ineffective but directly puts the users' privacy at risk from bad actors, hacks or leaks. Although Aylo executive Alex Kekesi told reporters that the company was 'extremely pro the concept of age verification", she warned that requiring platforms to verify age 'poses a very serious risk… with respect to your privacy rights.' Meanwhile, Friedman said the onus to verify the users' age must lie with the operating system providers. 'Google, Apple and Microsoft all have the capability built into their operating system to verify the age of the user at the operating system or device level,' he said. Their ability 'to supply an age signal to any site or app… can actually provide a solution' for controlling access to adult content without requiring users to share sensitive data with multiple websites, he argued. 'I understand that those three entities are large and they're powerful, but that is not an excuse for France to do what they have done.' Warning from France's culture minister Earlier on Tuesday (June 3), French Culture Minister Aurore Berge expressed her displeasure with the pornographic websites' stance and asked them to rather stop operating in the country than having to follow the new legal framework. 'There will be less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France,' she warned.
Canada Standard
7 days ago
- Business
- Canada Standard
Pornhub threatens to pull out of France
The adult content platform has accused Paris of compromising user privacy Pornhub, one of the world's largest adult content platforms, has threatened to cease operations in France in protest against stringent age verification regulations, which it claims could leave users' private data vulnerable to bad actors, hacks, and leaks. The platform's parent company, Aylo - which also operates popular adult sites like RedTube and YouPorn - has expressed concerns over the feasibility of complying with the French requirements by the June 7 deadline. Starting Wednesday, French users will be greeted by a message denouncing the age verification demands, aiming to explain directly "how dangerous, how potentially privacy-infringing, and how ineffective the French law is," a company representative told AFP. The French regulatory body, Arcom, mandated that adult websites implement robust age verification systems to prevent minors from accessing explicit content under a law passed in 2023. Non-compliance could result in significant fines or blocking of the website within France. The legislation envisions the use of third-party verification technologies that would confirm a user's age without collecting personal data. However, Aylo has argued that the current technological solutions either infringe on user privacy or are not sufficiently reliable. The company insists it supports age verification - but calls for more secure, device-level solutions. "Google, Apple, and Microsoft all have the capability built into their operating systems to verify the age of the user at the operating system or device level," said Solomon Friedman, vice president for compliance at Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners, which owns Aylo. "I understand that those three entities are large and powerful, but that is not an excuse for France to do what they have done." The French government maintains that these measures are essential for protecting minors online. Culture Minister Aurore Berge accused Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube of refusing to "comply with our legal framework" and deciding to leave "for the better." "There will be less violent, degrading, and humiliating content accessible to minors in France. Bye," Berge wrote on X on Tuesday. France's Digital Minister Clara Chappaz added that "requiring pornographic sites to verify the age of their users isn't stigmatizing adults, but rather protecting our children." Last month, President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his support for mandatory age verification not only for adult websites but also for teenagers registering on social media platforms, stating that online networks have contributed to suffering and mental health issues among young people. France, Spain, and Greece are also advocating for mandatory age verification on platforms such as Meta's Facebook and Elon Musk's X, according to Bloomberg. The three nations reportedly argue that the "lack of proper and widespread age-verification mechanisms" hampers enforcement of age limits. They aim to leverage the EU's economic power - with its 450 million consumers - to compel tech companies into implementing robust verification systems. (
Gizmodo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Pornhub Is Pulling Out of France
Aylo, the company that owns porn sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube, is planning to suspend service in France in protest of a new law that will require porn companies to verify the age of visitors. The deadline for porn sites to implement age verification is June 7 but Pornhub will block users starting Wednesday, June 4, according to France24. Websites will be required to verify a user's age using a credit card or a government-issued ID document. France's law requires porn companies to provide an option for age verification that relies on a third party, hypothetically protecting the user's privacy. But Aylo has argued that third-party verification puts private information at risk of hacks and leaks. Aylo was purchased by private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners in 2023, whose partner Solomon Friedman told reporters in a call Tuesday that the law is 'ineffective' and 'dangerous,' noting concerns over privacy. 'It's a matter of putting our values first, and that means communicating directly with the French people to tell them what their government is refusing to tell them,' Friedman said, according to Politico. Pornhub didn't immediately respond to Gizmodo's request for comment but Aylo has previously said the company would like age verification to happen at the device level by companies like Microsoft and Apple. Clara Chappaz, France's Minister of State for Digital Affairs, accused Aylo of lying about the age verification law and the requirements recently imposed by the country. 'Adults are free to consume porn, but not at the expense of protecting our children,' Chappaz said in a tweet Tuesday, according to an English language translation. 'Asking pornographic sites to verify the age of their users is not about stigmatizing adults, but about protecting our children.' France is Pornhub's second-largest market behind the U.S., according to stats released by the company in 2024. The Philippines, Mexico, and UK round out the rest of the top five countries visiting Pornhub by traffic volume. The top search result on Pornhub in France is 'francaise,' the French word for 'French,' perhaps suggesting that French porn consumers have a strict bias toward homegrown content. Age verification laws have become popular in the U.S., with 19 states passing such laws in recent years including: Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Idaho Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Montana Nebraska North Carolina Oklahoma South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia As you can see, the states with age verification laws tend to be the most politically conservative in the country, with every one but Virginia going for Trump in the 2024 election. But France isn't exactly the most socially conservative place in the world. The country also recently banned smoking in many outdoor spaces.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pornhub pulls out of France over age verification law
Aylo, the company which runs a number of pornographic websites, including Pornhub, is to stop operating in France from Wednesday. It is in reaction to a French law requiring porn sites to take extra steps to verify their users' ages. An Aylo spokesperson said the law was a privacy risk and assessing people's ages should be done at a device level. Pornhub is the most visited porn site in the world - with France its second biggest market, after the US. Aylo - and other providers of sexually explicit material - find themselves under increasing regulatory pressure worldwide. The EU recently announced an investigation into whether Pornhub and other sites were doing enough to protect children. Aylo has also pulled out of a number of US states, again over the issue of checking the ages of its users. All sites offering sexually explicit material in the UK will soon also have to offer more robust "age assurance." Aylo, formerly Mindgeek, also runs sites such as Youporn and RedTube, which will also become unavailable to French customers. It is owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. Their vice president for compliance, Solomon Friedman, called the French law "dangerous," "potentially privacy-infringing" and "ineffective". "Google, Apple and Microsoft all have the capability built into their operating system to verify the age of the user at the operating system or device level," he said on a video call reported by Agence France-Presse. Another executive, Alex Kekesi, said the company was pro-age verification, but there were concerns over the privacy of users. In some cases, users may have to enter credit cards or government ID details in order to prove their age. French minister for gender equality, Aurore Bergé, wrote "au revoir" in response to the news that Pornhub was pulling out of France. In a post on X [in French], she wrote: "There will be less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France." How can you keep your child safe online? The UK has its own age verification law, with platforms required to have "robust" age checks by July, according to media regulator Ofcom. These may include facial detection software which estimates a user's age. In April - in response to messaging platform Discord testing face scanning software - experts predicted it would be "the start of a bigger shift" in age checks in the UK, in which facial recognition tech played a bigger role. BBC News has asked Aylo whether it will block its sites in the UK too when the laws come in. In May, Ofcom announced it was investigating two pornography websites which had failed to detail how they were preventing children from accessing their platforms. Two porn sites investigated for suspected age check failings Pornhub and three other porn sites face EU child safety probe Discord's face scanning age checks 'start of a bigger shift' Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
