Porn sites and platforms allowing the sharing of porn have launched tougher age verification processes for UK users, to comply with new laws that kicked in on Friday July 25, 2025.
Now UK users accessing Pornhub are redirected to Allpasstrust: a third-party age verification system. You can verify that you’re aged 18 or over on Allpasstrust by methods including credit card information submission, an online banking check, or an email check.
Pornhub also now blurs porn content on its homepage for UK users that haven’t yet completed the age verification check. Some porn sites, such as Redtube and Youporn, don’t even show blurred porn scenes on their homepages before age verification is completed, now.
The UK’s Online Safety Act requires sites that publish or allow the sharing of porn to have robust age verification checks, to ensure that people aged under 18 don’t access them. The rules are being enforced by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulation agency, which has already launched investigations into some sites it suspects of falling foul of the rules.
On Friday, some Pornhub users complained that they were not able to successfully verify that they were adults on the site. As Friday was the first day of required age verification for porn-sharing sites in the UK, it’s likely that age verification platforms would have been under a lot of strain from high amounts of users.
Not just porn
Social media sites that allow the sharing of porn content are also covered by the new rules. Reddit is now using an ID verification system called Persona for age verification to access adult content on the platform, and Bluesky has introduced age verification.
Some Grindr users have complained about being locked out of the gay dating app recently, after it also introduced tougher age verification for UK users. Although not a porn app per se, in the UK Grindr introduced video selfie age verification in June.
There have been some complaints about Grindr’s selfie video process being glitchy or not working.
Social media sites, such as Bluesky, have also started requiring age verification if you’re in the UK and want to see adult content in your feeds.
The system used by Bluesky failed to verify a SEXTECHGUIDE staff member’s age in our own testing.
Pornhub complies
In recent years Aylo, the company behind porn sites including Pornhub and Redtube, has blocked its sites in various US sites that have introduced tougher age verification laws.
However, Aylo said that Ofcom’s age verification for the UK was “robust”, and that it would introduce new measures to comply with it.
There have been concerns that the UK’s new age verification rules threaten user privacy, as they often require submitting personal details and creating databases, albeit encrypted, linking individuals to porn use.
The push for stricter age verification laws is by no means restricted to the UK, many other countries around the world are also in the process of evaluating or implementing new rules around access to adult content.
Leave a Reply