Pornhub, the world’s most visited porn site, has ceased operations in France over concerns about a new law in the country which requires stricter age verification for users accessing adult content online.
On Wednesday, Aylo, the company behind Pornhub and other major adult sites including YouPorn and RedTube, announced the decision in a statement.
Alex Kekesi, the company’s vice-president of brand and community, criticised the French government’s insistence on site-based age verification, calling the system ‘ineffective, invasive and a threat to users’ privacy’.
“French citizens deserve a government and a regulator who are serious about preventing children from accessing adult content,” he said.
In response to Pornhub’s exit, French gender equality minister Aurore Berge wrote: “au revoir” on social media.
She added that the move would reduce access to “violent, degrading and humiliating” content for minors in France.
The new legislation is part of a broader European effort to ensure minors are protected from accessing explicit content.
Similar regulations are set to take effect in the UK, with Ofcom setting a deadline of July 2025 for platforms hosting adult content to implement highly effective age assurance measures.
These new regulations fall under the Online Safety Act, aiming to prevent children from accessing explicit material online.
Under the new regulations, websites will have to verify user age through methods including ID photo checks, credit card verification, mobile network age checks and facial age estimation.
In a statement, Ayo said that the company has tried to collaborate with French authorities “for years”, including through consultations, data sharing and participation in pilot projects.
But according to the business, the regulatory model adopted still fails to protect minors and instead puts the privacy of millions of adults at risk.
Ayo also urged French regulators to adopt a device-based age verification approach, which would require major operating system vendors, including Apple, Microsoft and Google, to apply age verification directly on users’ devices.
“The French government refuses to take this simple step and instead are focused on futile and entirely symbolic regulatory actions which are unenforceable, do not protect children and expose private data,” the statement said.
According to Ayo, the French government’s decision could unintentionally push users towards unregulated, non-compliant adult sites with far fewer guarantees, increasing the risk of exposure to illegal or harmful content.
In May, Ofcom fined Fenix, the parent company of OnlyFans, £1.05 million for providing inaccurate information on its age verification measures.
The fine came in response to statutory information requests made by the independent communications regulator in June 2022 and June 2023 in which Fenix incorrectly reported the challenge age of its facial age estimation technology as 23, when it was set at 20.
