Pornhub blocks access in France to protest age restrictions
Pornhub, Redtube and Youporn were scheduled to be suspended in France on Wednesday, according to parent company Aylo.
Instead of porn, the company will only display a statement on France's new regulations that require porn sites to verify that their users are 18 or older, a Pornhub spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Alyo's sites, like other porn sites available in France, has until June 7, 2025, to implement a rigorous new age verification standard.
It's part of a French government push to shield minors from inappropriate content.
France's Deputy Minister for Digital Technology Clara Chappaz defended the government's move late on Tuesday.
"We're not stigmatizing adults who want to consume this content, but we mustn't do so at the expense of protecting our children," she told France's Europe 1 TV.
The sites aren't protecting children, so it is now the government's responsibility, she said.
What is Aylo's issue with the age-verification law?
Currently, users to explicit sites can click a a box declaring they are over 18, but their age isn't actually verified.
France's new standard requires explicit websitesto verify a user's age using a credit card or a government-issued ID document.
And to protect users' identities, the standard requires porn sites to use an external site for this age verification.
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Using a principle known as double anonymity, the porn sites will then only receive confirmation that the person is of legal age and will not know their identity. The external service provider will know the identity of the user but not the reason for the age check or the sites the user visits.
Alyo has said that it is in favor of age verification but says it should be done on the devices used rather than on the websites visited.
The porn industry giant has called the French government's measure potentially privacy infringing and ineffective.
In a post on X on Tuesday, deputy minister Chappaz said the standard, with its double anonymity, guaranteed privacy.
"It's unacceptable to lie when you don't want to respect the law," she posted. "If Aylo would rather leave France than apply our law, they are free to do so."
How many minors watch porn in France?
Users in France account for Pornhub's second largest audience after the United States, according to Pornhub's own statistics for 2024.
And, says France's digital and audiovisual communication regulator Arcom, some 2.3 million minors access porn websites every month in the country.
That's 12% of France's total number of porn users.
Adult content platforms have come under fire elsewhere in the European Union.
EU regulators said last month that they would investigate several porn sites, including Pornhub, for failing to comply with rules to protect children.
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