Ofcom has launched an investigation into Pornhub proprietor, Aylo, over whether or not the location’s new age checks are successfully stopping kids from accessing grownup content material.
The regulator stated in Might that Pornhub began utilizing a brand new age verification course of for some customers, which relied on a 3rd celebration, Apple.
It stated it had considerations that Aylo “could not have carried out enough due diligence and testing” earlier than implementing this new course of, and so it “might not be extremely efficient” at stopping kids from seeing pornography.
In a prolonged assertion given to the BBC, Aylo strongly defended its system for age verification whereas stressing it will cooperate totally with the investigation.
Underneath the UK’s On-line Security Act (OSA), websites that host pornographic materials should use extremely efficient age assurance to make sure customers are over 18, however it leaves it as much as the service to resolve the tactic of age-checking it would use.
Ofcom says as a part of its investigation it would take into account how Aylo implements its age verification processes and whether or not it carried out the “vital due diligence” earlier than it was carried out.
It is not going to examine how Apple operates its age checks.
George Lusty, Ofcom’s Director of Enforcement, stated: “On-line age checks are a significant safety to forestall kids from encountering inappropriate or dangerous materials, together with pornography.
“We count on tech companies to make sure age checks are extremely efficient earlier than introducing them. Something much less may depart kids in danger.”
However Aylo argues that, having experimented in a number of markets with a number of age-check strategies, Apple’s system “supplies considerably stronger safety than some other age assurance technique at the moment accessible within the UK market”.
It additionally notes that Ofcom had beforehand praised Apple’s know-how as “an actual win for youngsters and households”.
Aylo argues a system based mostly on asking particular person pornographic websites to examine customers ages, merely drives customers to riskier websites that are not following Ofcom’s guidelines.
Analysis by the Lucy Faithfull Basis, exterior has beforehand advised that non-compliant websites “may be extra more likely to host dangerous or unlawful content material, and in some circumstances, sexual photographs of youngsters”.
However Iain Corby govt director of the Age Verification Suppliers Affiliation informed the BBC that an age-restricted web site couldn’t depend on an cell gadget based mostly system alone until it may reveal “that kids are in actual fact prevented from accessing its content material to the required normal.”
He doubted that Apple may present that “every time somebody accesses its web site, that the individual is identical one who initially proved their age to take away the gadget’s filter, or that Apple’s filter will at all times forestall entry to all its grownup websites.”
Underneath the OSA, Ofcom holds the ability to high quality non-compliant corporations as much as £18 million or 10% of their annual international turnover, whichever is bigger.
This probe is simply the most recent conflict between the regulator and what is likely one of the world’s most considered porn websites.
In October 2025 Pornhub stated site visitors from UK customers had plunged by greater than 75% following the introduction of extra strong age checks by the OSA.
Some have questioned whether or not folks had been merely utilizing Digital Non-public Networks (VPN) to get across the checks as an alternative.
In January, Pornhub introduced it will limit entry to its web site within the UK, blaming the more durable checks, with solely individuals who had beforehand made a Pornhub account capable of entry its content material.
Aylo stated that updates to the Act requiring age verification had “not achieved its objective of defending minors”.
Nonetheless, in Might, it stated it will be making the location accessible once more for some UK Apple customers who had confirmed their age with the corporate’s most modern model of iOS, its cell working system.
