404 Media

2026-01-27 14:50:05

Many UK Users Soon Won't Be Able to Access Pornhub

Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub and many of the most popular adult sites in the world, announced today that starting February 2 it will restrict people visiting the site from the UK.

In a call on Tuesday, leadership at Aylo and Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), which acquired Aylo in 2023, said that after six months of complying with the UK’s Online Safety Act, it’s made the choice to restrict access in the country entirely. People who have already verified their ages with the current verification system will still be able to access those sites using login credentials, but anyone who hasn’t already done so by February 2 will be blocked entirely.

“Anyone who has not gone through that process prior to February 2 will no longer be able to access [the sites] and they're going to be met with a wall,” Alexzandra Kekesi, VP Brand and Community at Aylo, said. “Basically, their journey on our platform will start and end there.” Users on paid sites will be able to access those sites if they’re logged in; this restriction applies to Aylo’s free video sharing platforms.

“When ECP acquired Aylo in March of 2023, one of our most important commitments was to work with regulators and industry, adult and mainstream, in order to find a solution to keep minors from accessing explicit content online,” Solomon Friedman, partner and vice president of compliance at Ethical Capital Partners, said in the call. “That remains a key focus of our attention today. ECP does not wish for one single minor to be able to access adult content, not just on a levels platforms, but on any adult platforms. It unfortunately is disheartening that regulators have not been given the legislative tools that they need, and instead, have been provided with really flawed sets of laws that in some jurisdictions were never intended to succeed.”

Until now, UK-based visitors to Aylo sites have complied with the UK’s Online Safety Act by verifying ages by entering a credit card, or uploading a government ID or other identification to an age estimation system called All Pass Trust. The Online Safety Act, which took effect in 2025, is similar to many laws in US states that keep users from accessing porn unless they upload an ID or pass biometric face scanning. In the UK, the law requires sites to implement age verification or face millions of dollars in fines and jail—or up to 10 percent of global revenues, whichever is higher.

Since going into effect, the Online Safety Act has fundamentally changed how people use the internet in the UK. Right after being implemented, platforms like Reddit, Bluesky, Spotify and others have been required to verify the ages of users to various degrees and to access various types of content—not just porn sites.

“We have seen six months of failure out of the United Kingdom, once again, not because OFCOM is failing, but because the law is failing,” Friedman said. “And for that reason, from the ECP perspective, as the ownership group of Aylo, we want laws around the world that protect children.”

As part of the call, ECP and Aylo presented a demonstration of device-based age assurance, which Alyo, the adult industry, and anti-child exploitation organizations has said is a safer, more effective way to keep children from accessing adult material.

Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content

Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UK's Online Safety Act.

^{Samantha Cole (404 Media)}

404 Media

2025-03-25 14:27:34

Texans Might Soon Have to Show Photo ID to Buy a Dildo Online

A newly introduced bill in Texas would require online sellers to show a photo ID before buying a dildo.

SB 3003, introduced by Senator Angela Paxton (wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton), would criminally charge online retailers for selling “an obscene device” without verifying the buyers’ age. Sellers would have to require customers to submit their government-issued photographic identification, or use “third-party age verification services that use public records or other reliable sources to verify the purchaser's identity and age,” the bill says. Owning a credit card, which already requires the holder to be over 18 years of age, would not be enough.

Like the regressive and ineffective adult site age verification laws passing all across the country in the last few years, this law would drag Texans back to a not-so-distant time when sex toy sellers had to pretend vibrators were for “massage.”

Hallie Lieberman, journalist and author of Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, sold sex toys in Texas in the early 2000s under the state’s “six dildo” law, which criminalizes the possession of six or more “obscene devices,” defined as "a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." That law is still on the books but is now considered unenforceable and unconstitutional. Lieberman told me sellers got around the law by claiming the toys were for “medical purposes.” This bill could send retailers back to that time.

“I can see something like that happening again, with people saying on their sex toy store websites that vibrators are for back massage and butt plugs are for rectal strengthening,” Lieberman said. “It's similar to how sex toys were marketed in the early 20th century to get around obscenity laws and the Comstock Act (which unfortunately still exists and may be used to prevent access to contraceptives and sex toys nationwide.) Butt plugs were sold as cures for asthma and vibrators for sciatica. We are literally going back in time with this law.”

Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet
Invasive and ineffective age verification laws that require users show government-issued ID, like a driver’s license or passport, are passing like wildfire across the U.S.
404 MediaEmanuel Maiberg

Lieberman told me she had to call the clitoris “the man in the boat” at the time to avoid breaking the law. “When we can't speak openly about our bodies and sexual pleasure, when we're forced to use euphemisms, we not only are under informed about our bodies, but we also feel shame in seeking out pleasure,” she said.

Like age verification laws for websites, the bill would make buying sex toys online harder for everyone, not just minors, and would send consumers to less-safe retailers with lower-quality, possibly dangerous toys. And also like those laws, people who do upload their government ID or undergo other age verification measures could risk having their purchases exposed to a hostile government.

“The government should not have a record of what sex toys we buy. This isn't just a frivolous concern,” Lieberman said. “In a nation where the president has declared that there are only two genders and that transgender people don't exist, where trans people are erased from government websites and kicked out of the military, it would be dangerous for the government to have a record that you purchased sex toys designed for trans people. Imagine you're a school teacher at a public school in Texas and there's a record you purchased a sex toy designed for queer people in a state where a parental bill of rights bill was just passed prohibiting discussion of sexual orientation in schools.”

"We are literally going back in time with this law."

Texas legislators have been trying to limit access to sex toys for their constituents for years. In late 2024, Hillary Hickland, a freshman member of Texas’ Republican House, introduced a bill that would ban retailers in the state from selling sex toys unless they file paperwork to become sexually oriented businesses—effectively forcing stores like Walmart, CVS and Target, which sell vibrators and other sex toys, to take those products off their shelves and forcing brick-and-mortar boutiques to verify the ages of all customers. The bill was referred to Texas’ Trade, Workforce & Economic Development committee earlier this month.

Paxton’s bill would charge online retailers with a Class A Misdemeanor if they don’t verify ages, and would open them up to fines up to $5,000 for each violation.

Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.

Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet

Invasive and ineffective age verification laws that require users show government-issued ID, like a driver's license or passport, are passing like wildfire across the U.S.

^{Emanuel Maiberg (404 Media)}