Overview

• Aylo started blocking Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube in France on June 4 to oppose the new requirement for users to verify their age before viewing adult content
• France’s SREN law, effective June 7, mandates age confirmation via credit cards or government IDs and requires a third-party double-blind verification option to shield platforms from users’ personal data
• Company executives argue that platform-level age checks increase the risk of data breaches and endorse device-level verification by Apple, Google or Microsoft as a safer alternative
• Culture Minister Aurore Berge and Digital Minister Clara Chappaz defended the measures as necessary to keep minors from harmful content and accused Aylo of misrepresenting the law’s privacy safeguards
• From June 6, media regulator ARCOM can direct internet service providers to block non-compliant sites, endangering the roughly 7 million daily French visits that make France Pornhub’s second-largest market