Italy has published a list of porn and porn-related sites that must introduce more robust age verification processes from November 12, 2025, as the country becomes the latest to toughen porn access laws.
AGCOM, the Italian communications regulatory authority, released the list of 45 sites it identified as providing porn in Italy. It includes Aylo sites Pornhub, Redtube and YouPorn, plus xHamster, camming site Chaturbate (very NSFW) and OnlyFans.
The sites on the list must verify that users in Italy are aged 18 or over, using third-party services. These can include a separate age verification service, a mobile operator or bank. This process will need to be done every time a user logs on to a porn site, unlike in countries such as the UK, where age verification for a site can be often done once for each user.
Italy’s porn age verification laws were technically implemented in May, but sites were given a grace period until November 12, and the list of affected sites has only just been made public. The list includes many major porn sites, and comes at a time when age verification critics are making the case that tougher rules push porn users to smaller, less well-regulated sites.
Recently Pornhub said that UK traffic to the site dropped by 77 percent after the country introduced tougher age verification rules for porn access in July. Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, says that porn users are simply migrating to sites that don’t comply with the new rules.
Following the UK toughening porn age verification rules, data did indeed show that smaller porn sites were enjoying more UK user traffic, while traffic to major porn sites declines.
The UK’s communication regulator Ofcom has launched investigations into many porn sites, including smaller sites, that it says have not complied with the country’s new rules.
Sites on the Italian porn list that don’t comply with the age verification rules from November 12 face fines of up to 250,000 Euros ($290,000). It’s likely that AGCOM will expand the list in the future.
Italy is one of five EU countries that has tested an age verification app made by the European Commission, with a view to being used for porn age verification longer-term.
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