Three of the leading pornographic video platforms have announced that they will stop broadcasting their content in France as of Wednesday, June 4th, as a protest against new French legislation that requires age verification for visitors in order to protect minors from accessing pornographic content.
The three sites concerned—Pornhub, Youporn, and Redtube—all belong to the Alyo group and are among the market leaders. The Alyo group considers French legislation recently introduced on user age verification as “irresponsible, disproportionate, and ineffective.” It also contests the involvement of Arcom in the system—the independent media regulatory authority that oversees the age verification system.
If regular users try to log on to the Pornhub website, they will find the figure of Marianne on the home page with the following slogan: “Freedom has no off button.” With this decision, Pornhub, which has 7 million daily visitors in France, and Aylo’s other platforms hope to mobilize French users to put pressure on the government to reverse its decision. The group also intends to convince other governments not to implement age verification systems.
The paradox of Alyo’s decision is that in order to protest against restrictions on access to their site by minors, they are restricting content to everyone, thereby guaranteeing the maximum effectiveness of the new legal measure.
The Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight Against Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, welcomed the group’s announcement.
“Protecting minors is our commitment and our responsibility. Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube refuse to comply with our legal framework and have decided to leave. So much the better! There will be less violent, degrading, and humiliating content accessible to minors in France. Goodbye,” she wrote on X.
Following Alyo’s decision, Arcom pointed out that a third of teenagers aged 12 to 17 regularly visit pornographic websites. Digital Minister Clara Chappaz publicly defended Arcom’s key role in protecting minors. “Arcom’s guidelines guarantee privacy with double anonymity. Adults are free to consume porn, but not at the expense of protecting our children. Asking pornographic websites to verify the age of their users is not stigmatizing adults but protecting our children. If Aylo prefers to leave France rather than apply our law, that’s up to them,” the minister said on X.
A debate has erupted online between supporters of absolute freedom of navigation on the web—including access to deeply destructive and degrading content—and those who believe that restricting access to pornographic content can only be a good thing, such as feminist essayist Marguerite Stern, who now defends conservative positions. She welcomed the situation on X: “Some people suddenly become extremely liberal when it comes to banning porn. Come on, guys, admit it: you’re addicted to porn and it’s destroying your brains!” she exclaimed in an energetic post.
The decision to withdraw will come at a cost to Aylo, as France is Pornhub’s second-largest market after the United States. The group will therefore lose significant advertising revenue. “It’s money we’re leaving on the table,” admits Alex Kekesi, community and brand director at Aylo.
