French visitors to popular adult websites such as Pornhub, Youporn, and RedTube will be greeted with a message criticizing the country’s age verification requirements starting Wednesday. This decision was made by the parent company, Aylo, which stated that it will cease operations in France due to a law that mandates additional verification steps to ensure users are 18 years or older.
In an effort to educate the French public on the potential dangers and privacy infringements associated with the age verification law, Aylo will display a message rather than showing any adult content on these websites. According to Solomon Friedman of Aylo’s owner, this move is meant to highlight the ineffectiveness and potential risks of the French law.
France has implemented a requirement for adult websites to verify users’ ages using methods such as credit card or ID document details. However, Aylo argues that this mechanism is flawed, exposing people’s data to potential misuse, hacks, or leaks. They believe that operating systems, such as Microsoft’s Windows, Apple’s iOS, or Google’s Android, should be targeted for age verification instead.
While Aylo supports the concept of age verification, they argue that requiring individual platforms to verify visitors’ ages poses a significant privacy risk. Exec Alex Kekesi stated that this approach jeopardizes privacy rights. ECP’s Friedman suggests that the ability of operating systems to verify user age without requiring sensitive information to be shared with multiple websites could provide a more effective solution.
Theaylo message will feature an image of “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix. In response to the decision, French
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/03/pornhub-france-id-verification
