Aylo to block U.K. access to Pornhub over safety law

Aylo, the parent company of platforms like Pornhub, announced on Tuesday that it will restrict access to its platforms in the United Kingdom, effective February 2. While U.K. users who have already verified their identity will still be able to use their accounts, other users in the country probably won’t be able to visit the site.

Ofcom, the U.K. communications regulator, disagrees with Aylo’s characterization of the legislation. The regulator stated that porn services have a choice between using age checks to protect users as required under the Online Safety Act (OSA), or blocking access to their sites in the U.K. To address claims of non-compliance, Ofcom stated that it has taken strong and swift action, launching investigations into more than 80 porn sites and fining a porn provider £1 million. Additionally, Ofcom urged the industry to develop age-verification solutions that work at the device level, provided providers can evidence that the technology is highly effective.

Aylo’s decision to restrict access follows 6 months of implementation of the OSA. In a statement, Aylo asserted: “Despite the clear intent of the law to restrict minors’ access to adult content and commitment to enforcement, after 6 months of implementation, our experience strongly suggests that the OSA has failed to achieve that objective”. The company believes the framework has diverted traffic to darker, unregulated corners of the internet, and has also “jeopardized the privacy and personal data of U.K. citizens.” Aylo also claimed that, so far, only the forum 4chan has been fined for non-compliance.

The decision to block access in the U.K. aligns with Aylo’s approach in the United States, where its websites are blocked in several U.S. states with age-verification mandates. The company has avoided these mandates due to fears of data exposure. These concerns are rooted in past incidents; Pornhub was, in fact, vulnerable to a data breach at the analytics provider Mixpanel. That incident resulted in stolen data from some Pornhub Premium subscribers, highlighting the privacy risks associated with collecting sensitive user information.

Why it matters

This standoff highlights the friction between aggressive age-verification mandates and the privacy risks inherent in collecting sensitive user data, a conflict playing out across multiple jurisdictions.