Pornhub, along with sister sites YouPorn and RedTube, pulled the plug on French access after a new law forced adult sites to verify the age of their users.
The owner, Aylo, says it tried for years to work with French regulators to develop an age-check system that wouldn’t also serve up users’ personal data. After failing to reach an agreement, it slammed the door on one of its biggest audiences. France was Pornhub’s second-largest daily traffic source, just behind the United States, where several states have enacted similar laws that have also led to Aylo pulling access.
The new French law demands porn sites use strict age-verification tools to supposedly protect children from harmful content. Users who want to access porn sites will have to upload a personal ID or bank card or maybe even scan their faces before doing so.
Aylo’s argument is the same they’ve been using in fights against similar laws in the United States: that kind of heavy-duty ID check should be handled by the companies making the devices and browsers people use to access porn, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, not the porn sites themselves. They say that if your phone can recognize your face to unlock itself, maybe it should also know if you’re 18 before you’re clicking through the Internet, which is itself the porn version of the Library of Alexandria.
Aylo also argues that these measures have a broader, more sinister intention of putting the financial onus of implementing and maintaining these costly age verification systems on the websites themselves, which lead to financial ruin for these companies which would have the intended knock on effect of killing the porn industry as a whole.
France’s communications watchdog, Arcom, isn’t buying it. They say there are “numerous technical solutions” available that both verify age and protect privacy. Instead of using them, Arcom says, Aylo is shirking its duty to protect kids. French Minister for Gender Equality Aurore Bergé cheered the shutdown, saying it’ll reduce minors’ exposure to degrading material, and called Aylo’s retreat a win.
Over a third of Americans now live in states with laws requiring porn sites to verify users’ ages, often using facial scans or government IDs. Rather than build compliance infrastructure, many major sites, including Pornhub, have geo-blocked those states. Meanwhile, the EU is launching an investigation into some of the largest porn sites on the internet, accusing them of failing to protect minors. The EU’s executive body, though, has also said that it’s developing an age-verification app that supposedly won’t force users to hand over their entire digital footprint just to watch porn.
This is probably the perfect time to launch a VPN startup.
The post Pornhub Pulls Out of France Over Age Verification Law appeared first on VICE.
