The British media regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into Aylo, the operator of the platform Pornhub. The aim is to examine whether the company is complying with its duties under the Online Safety Act to protect children from accessing pornographic content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the authority, providers of pornographic material must use \u201chighly effective\u201d age checks to determine whether users are over 18. Ofcom has expressed concerns that Aylo may not have conducted sufficient due diligence and testing before introducing a new process. In May 2026, Pornhub deployed a system for some users that relies on signals from a third party \u2013 in this case Apple. These signals are intended to indicate that UK users have completed Apple\u2019s age checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ofcom emphasises that under the Online Safety Act, responsibility for the effectiveness of the age check rests solely with the service provider \u2013 regardless of the stage at which the check occurs. Providers are also required to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of children\u2019s access before making any significant changes to the design or operation of their service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The investigation will seek to establish whether Aylo has failed to comply with the obligation to use highly effective age assurance and to complete an adequate children\u2019s access assessment. Ofcom will examine how Aylo implemented the process and whether the company exercised the necessary due diligence prior to its deployment. Explicitly excluded is any assessment of how Apple\u2019s age checks themselves operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nGeorge Lusty, Ofcom\u2019s Director of Enforcement, said: \u201cOnline age checks are a vital protection to prevent children from encountering inappropriate or harmful material, including pornography. We expect tech firms to ensure age checks are highly effective before introducing them. Anything less could leave children at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The procedure follows the steps set out in the Online Safety Act: Ofcom first gathers and analyses evidence. If the authority reaches a provisional conclusion that a breach has occurred, the company will be given the opportunity to respond before a final decision is made. In the event of established breaches, fines of up to \u00a318 million or 10 per cent of global annual turnover may be imposed \u2013 whichever is higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Independently of the specific allegations against Aylo, the case once again raises fundamental questions about the practical effectiveness of such age verification systems. Even \u201chighly effective\u201d checks can be relatively easily circumvented by technically proficient young people \u2013 for example through the use of VPNs that conceal location and enable access to unregulated or foreign sites. Whether the elaborate and privacy-sensitive mechanisms actually deliver the intended protection, or instead merely divert traffic towards less controlled offerings, remains an open and practically difficult question to answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The British media regulator Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into Aylo, the operator of the platform Pornhub. The aim is to examine whether the company is complying with its duties under the Online Safety Act to protect children from accessing pornographic content. According to the authority, providers of pornographic material must use \u201chighly effective\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,61],"tags":[892,223,1057,516,227],"class_list":["post-6723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-news-en","tag-age-verification-en","tag-avs-en","tag-aylo","tag-ofcom-en","tag-pornhub-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6726,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6723\/revisions\/6726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caszin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}