PORNHUB has pulled out of France over objections to a new law requiring porn sites to verify the age of users.
Aylo, the adult entertainment company that owns Pornhub, has announced it will block access to the site in France over the new rule.
The company claims the French law poses a privacy risk to users.
The law could see users required to enter credit card details or other forms of official ID to verify their age.
Aylo also runs other popular porn sites such as Youporn and RedTube – which will also now be unavailable in France.
The company argues that device-based age verification is a better solution than requiring porn sites to police the age of users.
Aylo’s VP for Brand and Community Alex Kekesi said: “All it requires is that the government enforce regulations on three companies – Apple, Google and Microsoft – the three operating system manufacturers requiring age verification at the device level prior to accessing adult content.
“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 your private data.”
Pornhub is the world’s most visited porn site, with France being one of its biggest markets.
The website claims that France was its second biggest audience in 2024 after the United States.
Kekesi added: “We’ve made the difficult decision to suspend access to our sites in France and instead use our platforms to speak directly to the French people.
“French citizens deserve a government and a regulator who are serious about preventing children from accessing adult content.
“They also deserve laws which protect their privacy and safeguard their sensitive data.”
French Gender Equality Minister Aurore Bergé posted on X that Aylo’s decision meant there would be “less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France”.
She added: “Pornhub, Youporn, and RedTube refuse to comply with our legal framework and decide to leave. Good!”
It comes after Aylo made similar moves to block access to its porn sites in several US states over age verification laws.
So far, 19 US states have passed laws requiring porn sites to verify users’s age.
The bans cover around one third of the US population.
Methods of checking under these laws can include providing a government-issued ID or even scanning a user’s face.
It has seen many porn sites opt to block access to their pages rather than implement such verification systems.
States that have implemented these laws include Texas, Florida, Arizona and Virginia.
The European Commission has also launched an investigation into several adult websites – including Pornhub – over accusations they had not complied with regulations aimed at stopping minors accessing porn.
The UK also has a law requiring platforms to have “robust” age checks in place by July.
It is currently unclear whether the same porn platforms will also block access to their sites in Britain when this comes into force.
