Following Aylo blocking access to its porn sites in France, the French digital minister has admitted that there will “always be a way” to get around blocked content, but defended France’s toughened porn age verification laws.
Aylo announced that from last Wednesday (June 4, 2025) access to the company’s porn sites, including Pornhub, would be blocked in France, with the company saying it was “taking a stand” against the new law. As it has done in the US, Aylo has called on French authorities to implement age verification for porn access through devices, rather than on websites.
The move came shortly after EU authorities said they were investigating a slew of porn sites, including Pornhub, suspecting them of not implementing age verification processes properly. Under French law, porn sites must now verify users’ ages using official ID or credit cards, for every user session.
People find a way
Virtual Proxy Network (VPN) company Proton VPN claimed that the signup rate for the firm’s services increased by 1,000 percent in France within half an hour of the French Aylo block being implemented. VPNs make it easy to circumnavigate content blocks by making your device act like it’s being operated in a different country or region.
On Friday, two days after the Aylo block began, France’s digital minister Clara Chappaz admitted that “there will always be a way to circumnavigate” blocked content, reported Euractiv. She added that the new French laws made it “much harder” to do so.
Speaking of viewing online porn, Chappaz said, “Psychologically, it puts children in a position of being a victim… what we are trying to have now is on those websites, not just a door – and tell kids don’t push the door – but have someone to check the age of the users.”
France is (or was until last Wednesday afternoon) reportedly Pornhub’s biggest market, after the US. Over the past few years Aylo has blocked its porn sites in various US states, as new state laws about age verification for accessing porn have come in.
Rather than implementing more robust age verification processes on itself, in the face of tightening laws, Aylo has rigidly stuck to the line that age verification should be done on device-level rather than being the responsibility of porn sites.
Alex Kekesi, Pornhub’s Vice President of brand and community, said: “For years, we’ve tried to work with the [French] government – consulting, sharing data, and offering to participate in pilot projects. The results of all these efforts were clear: age verification on a website does not work. It doesn’t protect children and exposes the data of millions of French citizens to privacy breaches and hacking.”
According to France’s new law, porn sites must offer a third–party ‘double-blind’ age verification option that doesn’t allow the site to access the user’s data and information.
Kekesi said: “There is a simple, easily implemented, and immediately available solution to solve this problem: device-based age verification. All it takes is for the government to require three companies – Apple, Google, and Microsoft, the three main operating system providers – to implement age verification at the device level before accessing adult content.
“The French government refuses to take this simple step and instead focuses on futile and entirely symbolic regulatory actions that are unenforceable, don’t protect children, and expose your private data.”
Beyond France…
Britain is also implementing tougher age verification laws for online porn access, and has set a deadline of July 25 for some porn sites to implement measures similar to those demanded in France.
Aylo is yet to respond to questions from the media about whether it will block access to Pornhub and its other porn sites in the UK.
Aurore Bergé, France’s gender equality minister, said: “Protecting minors is our commitment, our responsibility. Pornhub, Youporn, and Redtube refuse to comply with our legal framework and decide to leave… there will be fewer violent, degrading, humiliating contents accessible to minors in France.
“Au revoir,” she added.
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