Pornhub will cease access to new users in the United Kingdom starting February 2, citing the ineffectiveness of the country’s recently implemented age verification laws. This move follows the rollout of the Online Safety Act last July, which demanded stringent identity checks – including facial scans, ID uploads, and credit card verification – to prevent minors from accessing adult content.
The company claims its UK traffic has plummeted by 77% since the law took effect, but argues that widespread non-compliance among other adult websites renders the regulations pointless. Alex Kekesi, Pornhub’s VP of brand and community, stated that the company can no longer participate in a “flawed system.”
The Core Problem: Inconsistent Enforcement
Pornhub’s decision highlights a critical issue with current age verification measures: if not universally enforced, they fail to protect minors and penalize compliant platforms. A demonstration by Solomon Friedman, VP of compliance for Aylo (Pornhub’s parent company), revealed that six out of ten Google search results for “free porn” in the UK still bypass these laws.
The company has urged tech giants – Apple, Google, and Microsoft – to adopt device-based age verification, storing user data on personal devices instead of third-party sites. However, these companies have not responded, leaving regulators with no viable solution.
Broader Implications: The Futility of Current Regulations
Pornhub’s withdrawal from the UK market is not an isolated event. The company has already exited the majority of US states with similar age verification laws, while the US remains its top traffic source due to easy circumvention via VPNs. This suggests that current regulations are easily bypassed and that broader systemic changes are necessary to effectively protect minors online.
The situation extends beyond pornography. Explicit content also proliferates on platforms like X, where AI chatbots such as Grok are being used to generate non-consensual sexual images. Regulators lack the tools to address this, as Google Images already caches explicit content, and current laws fail to tackle it.
The Path Forward: Device-Based Verification
To succeed, stricter measures are needed, including device-based age verification across operating systems. This would require tech giants to take responsibility for verifying users’ ages at the device level, rather than relying on individual websites to enforce ineffective laws.
Without a unified approach, age verification will remain a patchwork of restrictions that fail to protect minors while penalizing legitimate businesses. The current system is unsustainable, and more drastic action is necessary to address the problem effectively.
