NICOSIA, Cyprus — Tech and media company Aylo, which owns various adult properties including Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube, plans to introduce age assurance methods in the United Kingdom that satisfy government rules under the Online Safety Act, the company has announced.
Alex Kekesi, Aylo’s VP of Brand and Community, revealed the plan in a statement issued Wednesday.
“For years Aylo has publicly called for effective and enforceable age assurance solutions that protect minors online, while ensuring the safety and privacy of all users,” the statement reads. “The United Kingdom is the first country to present these same priorities demonstrably.”
Kekesi praised U.K. media regulator Ofcom for how it has been handling implementation of the new rules.
“Ofcom has consulted with industry stakeholders and has presented a variety of flexible methods of age assurance that are less intrusive than we have seen in other jurisdictions, giving us the confidence to operate within their framework,” she noted. “Our conversations with Ofcom have been constructive and solution-focused.”
Kekesi called Ofcom’s model “the most robust in terms of actual and meaningful protection we’ve seen to date.”
In numerous U.S. states, by contrast, Aylo has opted to block access to its sites rather than comply with regulations it deems ineffective and likely to compromise privacy.
“Age assurance legislation in other jurisdictions is failing for a number of reasons, including its inconsistent and ineffective enforcement at scale, leaving hundreds of thousands of platforms with age inappropriate content accessible, most of which do not have content moderation or uploader verification measures,” the statement notes. “We know that when people choose not to age verify, they do not stop looking for adult content; they migrate to those irresponsible platforms.”
As XBIZ reported earlier this month, the company also blocked access to its sites in France in response to age verification requirements under that country’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space law, but lifted the block when a French court suspended those rules.
