Pornhub Pushes Tech Giants for Device-Level Age Checks
▼ Summary
– Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, has urged Apple, Google, and Microsoft to adopt device-based age verification in their app stores and operating systems.
– The company argues that site-based age verification methods are flawed and have failed to protect minors from accessing inappropriate content online.
– Aylo advocates for device-based authentication, where a user’s age is verified once on their device and shared with adult sites via an API.
– This initiative follows the adoption of age verification laws in the US and UK, requiring users to upload ID to access explicit content, with 25 US states having varying provisions.
– Pornhub has experienced significant traffic declines, including an 80% drop in Louisiana and nearly 80% in the UK, due to compliance with these laws.
The parent company of Pornhub has formally requested that leading technology firms implement device-level age verification systems across their platforms. In recent correspondence addressed to Apple, Google, and Microsoft, Aylo, the entity overseeing Pornhub, Brazzers, Redtube, and YouPorn, advocated for integrating age confirmation directly into device operating systems and app stores. Anthony Penhale, Aylo’s chief legal officer, emphasized the company’s commitment to safeguarding minors online but criticized current website-specific verification methods as ineffective and problematic.
According to the letters, existing approaches requiring users to submit identification or personal documents on individual adult websites have consistently fallen short of their intended goal: preventing underage access to explicit material. Aylo contends that verifying a user’s age once at the device level, such as through a smartphone or tablet, would allow that confirmation to be securely shared with multiple platforms via an application programming interface (API). This method, they argue, would enhance privacy and security while streamlining access for adult consumers.
This push comes amid a wave of new legislation in both the United States and the United Kingdom mandating age checks for adult content. In the U.S., 25 states have now passed some version of identity verification law, though requirements vary significantly from one jurisdiction to another. Typically, these regulations compel users to provide official identification or rely on third-party verification services before viewing sexually explicit material online.
The impact of these laws on Pornhub’s audience has been substantial. In Louisiana, where the platform chose to comply with local age verification rules, traffic plummeted by approximately 80 percent. A similar pattern emerged in the UK following the introduction of the Online Safety Act, with the site experiencing a nearly 80 percent decline in viewership. These steep drops illustrate the operational and user engagement challenges posed by state-by-state or nation-specific verification mandates, prompting Aylo’s call for a more unified, device-based solution.
(Source: Ars Technica)
