NICOSIA, Cyprus — Pornhub parent company Aylo on Tuesday announced that users in the United Kingdom will once again be able to access the popular site if they are using Apple devices and have confirmed their age through Apple’s U.K. age-verification process.
In a statement, Aylo VP Brand and Community Alex Kekesi said, “For years, Aylo has advocated for device-based age verification as the most effective and privacy-protecting approach to help prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content online. With the release of iOS 26.4, Apple has introduced the world’s first-ever device-based age verification solution for its users in the U.K., a major first step toward a global solution that stands to better protect children everywhere. As a result, today Aylo welcomes eligible age-confirmed U.K. iOS users back to Pornhub.”
As XBIZ reported in June 2025, Aylo initially introduced age assurance methods that satisfied government rules under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA). In February 2026, however, citing what it viewed as the OSA’s “flawed system,” Aylo began blocking access to its free video-sharing platforms in the U.K. unless users had already set up accounts.
In March, with the launch of iOS 26.4, Apple began implementing account-level age verification for users in the U.K. In its statement, Aylo called the move “one of the strongest and hardest to circumvent protections currently available for helping prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content.”
During a press conference on Tuesday, Ethical Capital Partners partner Solomon Friedman said that ECP, which owns Aylo, is “delighted” that Apple has instituted U.K.-wide device-based age assurance, while Kekesi called it “a huge step.”
“We believe this is the path forward,” Kekesi said, adding that the company hopes that when people see the effectiveness of Apple’s device-based AV solution, there will be global rollout across other operating systems internationally.
Aylo has blocked access to its sites in numerous U.S. states that have adopted AV laws, as well as in France and Australia. The “reopening” of access in the U.K. is a first for the company, Kekesi noted.
“This is the first time we are effectively coming back to a market because we have a solution that in our view permits us to do that in the safest way possible,” she said. “This is a really exciting day.”
Since age verification happens “within the Apple ecosystem,” Kekesi explained, no site-based steps are needed, as the process intercepts users “at a different point in the funnel.”
“It offers a much more seamless experience to the user,” Kekesi said.
Aylo considers this crucial since users encountering age verification requirements tend to go instead to noncompliant sites, Friedman noted.
“Right now, when you Google ‘free porn’ from the U.K., half the results Google and Bing return are sites that are noncompliant,” Friedman said.
Apple’s solution, Friedman stated, meets the parameters for effective age assurance without requiring users to provide personal information to sites or being easy to circumvent, making it “far superior” to platform-based solutions that are being circumvented by sites and users alike.
“Apple’s got it right,” Friedman said.
At this stage, the U.K. "reopening" applies only to Pornhub, not yet to other Aylo sites such as YouPorn and Redtube, ECP partner Sarah Bain told XBIZ.
"Aylo is rolling this out in a measured way," Bain said.
