NICOSIA, Cyprus — Pornhub parent company Aylo will restrict access to its free video-sharing platforms in Australia in response to new age verification regulations, the company confirmed Thursday.
Australia’s Designated Internet Services Code comes into force March 9. Finalized last year by Australia’s online safety regulator, eSafety, those rules require that sites and platforms with “the sole or predominant purpose” of providing online adult content must implement age-assurance measures before allowing users to access such content.
Failure to comply could result in civil penalties of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (more than $35 million) per breach.
An Aylo spokesperson told XBIZ that users in Australia will be presented with a "safe for work experience" when they view the platform, and shared the following statement:
“In response to Australia’s new age verification law, Aylo’s video-sharing platforms will be restricting access to adult material before the deadline on March 9th. Australia is following a similar approach to the U.K., which all our evidence shows does not effectively protect minors, and instead creates harms relating to data privacy and exposure to illegal content on noncompliant platforms.”
As XBIZ reported in January, Aylo began blocking access to its free sites in the United Kingdom as of Feb. 2, unless users had already set up accounts prior to that date.
Australian news site Crikey is reporting that Australian users attempting to access Aylo sites Redtube, YouPorn and Tube8 are already encountering a message saying the platforms are “not currently accepting new account registrations” in the region.
The Aylo statement goes on to cite a recent survey by a child abuse prevention charity, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which found that 45% of UK pornography users have visited sites that are not compliant with age verification rules under the Online Safety Act. Like Aylo, the Foundation expressed concern that such sites may be more likely to host harmful or illegal content.
The statement reaffirmed that Aylo continues to favor device-based solutions as “the most realistic and effective way to protect minors online.”
“We encourage regulators to require operating systems to play their part in the protection of minors and the reduction of data sharing,” the statement reads. “For example, we have seen that Apple will be deploying an age verification requirement for 18+ app downloads. We suggest Apple enable the screen time feature to limit adult websites by default, and make it such that the very same verification be required to disable it. This can ensure that only age-verified Apple devices can access adult websites.”
As XBIZ reported last year, eSafety conducted public consultations while drafting the Designated Internet Services Code, but opted not to incorporate the recommendations of industry representatives such as the Free Speech Coalition.
