Pornhub blocks itself in France (again)

Pornhub stopped operating in France last month in anticipation of the country’s age-verification law going into effect. When the law was suspended weeks later, Pornhub restored itself in France. Now, Pornhub has blocked itself once again.

France’s age-verification law requires porn sites to install a third-party system to check visitors’ ages. This system must also be “double-blind,” meaning the porn site doesn’t know the visitor’s age, and the verification system doesn’t know which site they are accessing.

On June 16, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the law, citing EU regulations. On July 15, the Council of State, the top French court, annulled the suspension. That same day, Aylo (which owns Pornhub and other adult sites like YouPorn and Redtube) released a statement that it will again stop operating in France.

“While important questions about the implementation of the law in France are still being considered, we maintain that French citizens deserve regulation that will prevent children from accessing adult content and that can be effectively enforced,” Aylo states. “They also deserve that their privacy and sensitive data be protected. Again, we believe the current approach faces significant challenges in achieving these important goals.”

The company goes on to state that verifying one’s age every time one visits a site doesn’t protect minors but instead endangers privacy through potential data breaches. It also said these laws put children at risk by driving them to websites that don’t comply with the laws.

“To the French government and [France’s communication regulator] Arcom we ask, how many minors have been protected in the six weeks since this law came into effect?” the statement says. “Provide the data on how this reduced access to age-inappropriate content.”

These are the same concerns free speech advocates have expressed to Mashable: that age-verification sites won’t work, are easily circumvented with VPNs, and have internet privacy and security concerns. In terms of the former, Proton VPN saw a 1,000 percent increase in sign-ups in France in the 30 minutes following the initial block.

Aylo advocates for device-level filters to prevent minors from accessing these websites.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court deemed Texas’s age-verification law constitutional, setting a precedent for similar laws. Pornhub has blocked itself in most states with such a law. The UK’s own age-verification law goes into effect on July 25, and Pornhub will comply and operate within the region.