-Updated June 19, 2025

The Administrative Court has Spoken

While important questions about the implementation of the law in France are being considered, we maintain that French citizens deserve regulation that will prevent children from accessing adult content and that can be effectively enforced. They also deserve that their privacy and sensitive data be protected. Again, we believe the current approach faces significant challenges in achieving these important goals.

A path forward requires law makers to understand and address with a clear enforcement plan the fact that adult content exists on hundreds of thousands of platforms, not simply the 17 sites designated in the ministerial order. The court's decision to suspend the order, based on questions about compatibility with the EU's country-of-origin principle, provides an opportunity to reconsider more effective approaches while we await the Court of Justice of the European Union's final ruling.

To make the internet safer for everyone, every phone, tablet or computer should start as a kid-safe device. Only verified adults should be allowed to unlock access to age-inappropriate content. This is the core premise of device-based age verification, which we believe is the safest and most secure option. The technology to accomplish this exists today.

What is required is the political and social will to make it happen on a global level. We are determined to be part of this solution and want to collaborate with government, civil society and tech partners to arrive at an effective device-based age verification solution. While we continue to comply with regulations in our jurisdiction of establishment, we believe a harmonized approach across borders would better serve the shared goal of protecting minors.

Montreal, Canada (June 4, 2025) – Today, Aylo, a technology and media company, owner of a large portfolio of adult online entertainment properties, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube, provides the following Statement.

Statement by Alex Kekesi, VP Brand and Community, on behalf of Aylo:
We’ve made the difficult decision to suspend access to our sites (user-uploaded content platforms, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube) in France and instead use our platforms to speak directly to the French people.

French citizens deserve a government and a regulator who are serious about preventing children from accessing adult content. They also deserve laws which protect their privacy and safeguard their sensitive data.

For years, we have attempted to collaborate with the government, by consultation, data sharing and offering pilot project participation. The results of all of this have been clear – site-based age verification does not work. It does not protect children, and it exposes the data of millions of French people to privacy breaches and hacks.

Your government won’t tell you the truth about this, but we will.

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.

As of June 4, 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 – a site that, we believe, is better at safeguarding its community than any other user generated content platform, including mainstream social media platforms. Sites like ours, which host legal and regulated porn will no longer be available in France, but thousands of irresponsible porn sites will still be easy to access.

We know people will not stop looking for porn. They just migrate to hundreds of thousands unsafe platforms that have not only chosen to be non-compliant, but also have far fewer, if any, Trust and Safety policies in place. In effect, all data indicates that these laws have just diverted traffic to dangerous websites that have made the conscious decision to act illegally. The way France has chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard and dangerous.

You deserve real solutions to stop minors from accessing adult content. We want to be part of that solution. But this symbolic law will do nothing to protect children. Demand that your government have the courage to get this right.

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Additional Resources

• English translation of the message to the French public on the Pornhub homepage, June 4, 2025 (see visual below)

• Aylo submission to the SECU committee regarding S-210 Protecting Minors Online: Why Device-Based Age Verification Is the Key (Canada)

• Aylo presentation to Quebec Government - Commission spéciale sur les impacts des écrans et des réseaux sociaux sur la santé et le développement des jeunes (Québec)

• Submission to European Commission Protection of Minors consultation (EU) Digital Services Act – Guidelines on the Protection of Minors Online Stakeholder Contribution

• Opinion: Why Device-Based Age Verification is the Key to Protecting Minors Online

• Aylo’s Age Verification fact sheet

*Device-Based Age Verification refers to any approach to age verification where the personal information that is used to verify the user’s age is either shared in-person at an authorized retailer, inputted locally into the user’s device, or stored on a network controlled by the device manufacturer or the supplier of the device’s operating system. Whether through pre-installed content blocking and filtering software, the disabling of web-browsing permissions, or other means, the user will then be prevented from accessing age-restricted content over the internet unless they are age verified. To come to fruition, such an approach requires the cooperation of manufacturers and operating-system providers.

About Aylo
The intersection of technology and culture

Launched in 2004, Aylo is a tech pioneer offering world class adult content platforms. The company provides trusted environments to enable a safe online user experience, and to empower its communities by celebrating diversity, inclusion and expression. Aylo holds a number of widely popular and diverse online adult entertainment and gaming properties. Its portfolio includes Pornhub, YouPorn, Brazzers, Men.com, Nutaku, and more, all of which maintain robust trust and safety protocols.

Contacts
For media inquiries, please contact:
Aylo Communication
media@aylo.com