Ofcom has launched an investigation into Pornhub proprietor, Aylo, over whether or not the positioning’s new age checks are successfully stopping kids from accessing grownup content material.
The regulator stated in Could that Pornhub began utilizing a brand new age verification course of for some customers, which depends on a 3rd occasion, on this case Apple.
It stated it had issues that Aylo “could not have carried out adequate due diligence and testing” earlier than implementing this new course of, and so it “is probably not extremely efficient” at stopping kids from seeing pornography.
Below the UK’s On-line Security Act (OSA), websites that host pornographic materials should use extremely efficient age assurance to make sure whether or not a consumer is over 18.
The BBC has approached Aylo for remark.
Ofcom says as a part of its investigation it would think about how Aylo implements its age verification processes and whether or not it carried out the “vital due diligence” earlier than it was carried out.
It is not going to examine how Apple operates its age checks.
George Lusty, Ofcom’s Director of Enforcement, stated: “On-line age checks are an important safety to forestall kids from encountering inappropriate or dangerous materials, together with pornography.
“We anticipate tech corporations to make sure age checks are extremely efficient earlier than introducing them. Something much less might depart kids in danger.”
Below the On-line Security Act, Ofcom holds the facility to nice non-compliant firms as much as £18 million or 10% of their annual international turnover, whichever is larger.
This probe is simply the most recent conflict between the regulator and what is likely one of the world’s most considered porn websites.
In October 2025 Pornhub said site visitors from UK customers had plunged by greater than 75% following the introduction of extra strong age checks by the OSA.
Some have questioned whether or not folks have been merely utilizing Digital Personal Networks (VPN) to get across the checks as a substitute.
In January, Pornhub announced it could prohibit entry to its web site within the UK, blaming the harder checks, with solely individuals who had beforehand made a Pornhub account in a position to entry its content material.
Aylo stated that updates to the Act requiring age verification had “not achieved its purpose of defending minors” and had “diverted site visitors to darker, unregulated corners of the web”.
Nonetheless, in Could, it said it could be making the positioning out there once more for some UK Apple customers who had confirmed their age with the corporate’s most recent model of iOS, its cell working system.
