Pornhub stops operating in France after regulatory pressures for porn sites to verify the age of their users. Aylo is the parent company of Pornhub, the most visited porn site in the world, and other sites providing sexually explicit content.
Age verification provided by a credit card or ID document has gradually been imposed in France this year with the introduction of stricter laws aimed at protecting children first and foremost.
With the internet being readily available to anyone, even children, the danger of children being exposed to online content that is harmful and impressionable for their age is motivating regulators to change the law and impose necessary age checks. Privacy has been carefully considered as users are asked to input more identifying data about themselves. Operators must offer a third-party “souble-blind” solution that blocks operators from seeing data. Aylo denounced the feature which would increase risk to people’s data.
“The protection of our kids online has no price”, says Thomas Regnier, Spokesperson for Tech Sovereignty, Defence, Space, Research and Innovation at the EU Commission.
European Commission will present a pilot project this summer of an EU-wide age verification tool and announce its DSA guidelines on the protection of minors, continuing to create a safer online environment for children.
