Pornhub has blocked access in France as of yesterday, the BBC and other news outlets reported. The tube site reportedly exited the country, which is its second biggest market according to CNN, because of a French age-verification law.
The law states that, by June 7, porn sites must install a technical system to verify users’ ages beyond a “yes or no” checkbox, according to Radio France Internationale. This must be done by a third party and comply with “double anonymity,” meaning the porn site doesn’t know the user’s exact age and the verification system doesn’t know what sites the user visits. The system requires a user’s credit card or a government ID.
Why is Pornhub blocked in France?
Pornhub, along with YouPorn and Redtube (all owned by parent company Aylo, formerly MindGeek), restricted access in France on June 4.
“We’ve made the difficult decision to suspend access to our sites (user-uploaded content platforms, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube) in France and instead use our platforms to speak directly to the French people,” Pornhub’s VP of brand and community, Alex Kekesi, said in a statement.
“For years, we have attempted to collaborate with the government, by consultation, data sharing and offering pilot project participation,” Kekesi continued. “The results of all of this have been clear — site-based age verification does not work. It does not protect children, and it exposes the data of millions of French people to privacy breaches and hacks.”
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The statement goes on to advocate for device-based filtering, and argues that people won’t stop looking for porn, and will instead go to non-complying websites.
“The Aylo group has chosen to shirk the imperative of protecting minors by suspending access to its content in France, including for adults, even though there are numerous technical solutions on the market that allow users’ age to be verified while ensuring the protection of their personal data,” Arcom, France’s communication regulator, stated in its own press release.
“Au revoir,” France’s minister for gender equality, Aurore Bergé, wrote on X, stating that Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube refuse to comply with the law.
Age-verification laws in the U.S. and abroad
Age-verification laws have swept the U.S. in recent years, with nearly a third of states enacting them. Typically, these laws require a proof of age like a facial scan or a government ID. As with France, Pornhub has blocked itself from most of those states, citing the burden to comply.
But free speech advocates that Mashable has spoken to claim that age-verification laws won’t function as intended as they can be worked around with software like VPNs, and can cause privacy and security risks. A recent study out of NYU suggested age-verification laws don’t work for these reasons.
In January, the Supreme Court heard about the constitutionality of Texas’s age-verification law. The decision is expected this month.
Mashable has reached out to Pornhub for comment.
