As of February 2, British people will no longer be able to access the PornHub, YouPorn and RedTube sites. The owner of these platforms announced earlier this week suspending access to its sites in the United Kingdom which joins the growing list of countries where the company has chosen to block its services rather than comply with new regulations on age verification.
A challenge to policies for the protection of minors
In a press release, Aylo criticizes the way in which the obligation to verify the age of users has been applied across the Channel since the entry into force of the Online Safety Act last July. According to the group, these restrictions fall far short of protecting minors and have actually “diverted traffic to darker, unregulated corners of the internet”. The group highlights a paradox: while the major players comply with the law, “the vast majority of sites that offer content inappropriate for certain ages are not subject to any control”.
Aylo also expresses concerns about British privacy and personal data. The company advocates for a different approach and proposes that “every phone, tablet or computer should be set up as a child-safe device from the start” rather than placing this responsibility on the websites. This is the same demand he made last summer, when he finally decided to block its content in France.
In France, a law requires publishers of adult content sites to set up an identification system which prevents minors from accessing them, under penalty of sanctions from Arcom, the French digital and audiovisual police. The French soap opera has experienced several twists and turns: After an initial blockage in June 2025, Aylo restored access to its content two weeks later by taking advantage of the suspension of a ministerial decree. But the court ultimately reinstated the age verification requirement, which led to a new blockage in mid-July which has continued since. Faced with this strategy, demand for VPNs has exploded: NordVPN and Proton, two references in the segment, announced that they had recorded peaks in subscriptions as soon as this blocking was implemented.
Italy next on the list
The European regulatory offensive continues elsewhere: from February 1, Italy will join France and the United Kingdom and impose on all pornographic sites (but also gambling sites) the mandatory implementation of age verification systems through a third party organization. This generalization of measures to protect minors is part of a broader trend which also affects certain American states (Florida, Texas, North Carolina, etc.).
Despite his firm stance, Aylo says he remains “committed to working with the UK, the European Commission and other international partners to ensure that lessons learned in the UK are taken into account in future policymaking”.
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