“As of 4 June 2025, millions of consenting adults in France will no longer be able to access our library of thoroughly moderated and consensual adult entertainment on one of the most trusted adult sites in the world.” In what looks like a spectacular PR stunt, the Canadian owner of Aylo--the Luxembourg holding company that brings together Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube--has blocked the broadcasting of its channels in France. It is not happy that the French authorities--the only example of political courage on the subject in Europe for ages--are imposing strict age verification via sensitive documents, such as an ID or a bank card, as part of France’ law on securing and regulating the digital space (Loi sécurité et régulation de l’espace numérique, SREN).
It’s a triple debacle in a country that has become the world’s second biggest consumer--behind the US - of Pornhub, even if consumption is less than ten minutes per session.
First, with artificial intelligence as a free service, it only takes a couple of minutes to figure out how to find a VPN, how to install it and how to keep watching what you want to watch in peace.
Next, we don’t really know what Aylo is hoping for from this decision, but the likelihood is that executives in need of frilly lingerie or imagination, those frustrated with life, young adults (who make up the vast majority of Pornhub users and mainly access the site on Monday nights around 11 o’clock) or children in need of sex education to get together to demonstrate their anger in front of the French National Assembly is pretty small....
Finally--and this is the most interesting aspect--the official communication from the lawyers who are officially the new owners of the group is breaking down. “There is a simple, easy-to-implement and immediately available solution to this issue--device-based age verification. 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,” says Aylo’s press release.
In other words, after spending years explaining how Aylo--because Aylo has gone to great lengths to find a solution--is trying to meet the demands of legislators on the subject, the Luxembourg holding company that groups Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube would like to transfer the burden of proof of age to those who develop the operating systems. This is a way of acknowledging that everything that has been done to date has not (ever) provided the hoped-for response. But not only that: it’s not a “simple” or “easy to implement” solution... and again, it would only take five minutes to explain to you how to get around this feature.
Apart from a double authentication process for each connection, based on facial recognition--since more than 90% of connections are made via a smartphone--it is hard to see how this problem, with its disastrous consequences for young people, can be resolved.
On 10 February, in Luxembourg, the Ombudsman for Children and Young People (Okaju) warned, specifically targeting Aylo and Docler Holding: “If the state chooses to maintain a business model that includes holding companies investing in pornography, it cannot make the conscious choice to remain inactive and benefit from the revenues of an industry that violates children’s rights.” Then, it added: “Younger and younger children, who can access pornographic content and content involving sexual abuse of minors with a click of the mouse and declare themselves to be of age, suffer damage to their neurological and psychological development, their mental health, their sexuality and their social interactions. This exposure contributes in particular to the explosion in sexual violence between minors, resulting from the social learning and harmful social norms generated by the pornographic industry. The evidence we have is overwhelming.”
So when will politicians really take the measure of this phenomenon? Seriously, I mean. At the end of May, the Luxembourg Competition Authority--which inherited the management of the Digital Service Act in Luxembourg--announced that it was joining the actions of the European Digital Services Committee and said that it supported the steps taken by the European Commission, which had launched in-depth investigations. That’s all well and good. But despite these results, Docler and its flagship brand, Livejasmin, are already not among the platforms under surveillance. Which doesn’t bode well for a good start...
Pornhub generated $500m in profits in 2023.
This article was originally published in French.
