Big-name porn sites back online in France after age check row

The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS (The Canadian Press)

PARIS, France -- Major adult websites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube were back online in France Friday after a court suspended a decision requiring pornographic platforms based in the EU to verify users’ ages.

France has gradually introduced requirements this year for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details such as a credit card or ID document. The aim is to prevent minors from accessing pornography.

But the Paris administrative tribunal on Monday suspended a government decree while investigating whether it was compatible with EU legislation.

The French government has shared its intention to appeal to the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court.

The three platforms’ owner, Aylo, said the decree’s suspension was an “opportunity to reconsider more efficient approaches” to age verification.

Aylo, based in Cyprus, had made its websites unavailable in France in early June as a protest against the French decree. Failure to comply could have lead to sanctions including fines or the blocking of the websites.

Aylo argued that this was an ineffective mechanism that exposed people’s data to bad actors, hacks or leaks.

“Requiring you to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users,” the company said in a message displayed on the sites’ homepages earlier this month.

About 40 percent of children in France access to porn sites every month, according to a 2024 study by France’s Arcom audiovisual watchdog.

In a bid to preserve privacy, the government decree also required operators to offer a third-party “double-blind” option that would prevent the platforms from seeing users’ identifying information.

Aylo, which reports seven million visitors in France daily across its various platforms, has called instead for governments to require makers of operating systems such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to verify users’ ages at the level of individual devices.

The platform also argues that the French law “diverts users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations” and fails to moderate videos for issues such as the age and consent of performers.

Other countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany also enforce age-related access restrictions to adult websites.