Earlier this year, Pornhub went dark in the United Kingdom after Aylo, the company that owns it, cut off users who hadn’t already verified their age. Rather than comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act demands for age verification via government ID upload, the company took a stand on the issue (just as it did in the U.S., when it blocked access in over 20 U.S. states with similar restrictions including Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Utah).
The Online Safety Act
The Online Safety Act 2023 is a landmark law in England, designed to regulate internet content. It places a legal duty of care on social media companies, search engines, and platforms hosting user-generated content to proactively screen underage people before showing them adult material, requiring the upload of ID.
But the site is back for British users who have Apple thanks to iOS 26.4. The account-level age check confirms whether a user is over eighteen by using signals it already holds including how long the account has existed, whether there’s a credit card on file, or if those two options fail, scan of a qualifying photo ID. Apple does the verifying and passes along only the result.
Aylo responded by welcoming back “age-confirmed” iOS users, who will once again be served what the company calls a “standard adult experience.” Everyone else in the UK or using an Android, is still out of luck.
Age Verification— A Less Invasive Option?
For its part, Aylo has been arguing for this form of age check since the Online Safety Act took effect. The company’s position has always been that making users upload identification directly to a porn site is both invasive and a security liability, and that age verification belongs at the device or account level, where it can be done once and kept private.
Apple isn’t necessarily an ally to the adult industry, but its latest operating system is, as it’s handed Pornhub a compliance path that doesn’t route a database of UK porn-watchers’ passports through Aylo’s servers.
There is some question as to whether it actually satisfies the law. The Age Verification Providers Association has already argued that it doesn’t because Pornhub never checks the user itself. The AVPA also argues that the site doesn’t know if the adult who set up the iPhone is the person now holding it, as it receives no authenticated confirmation.
Is the United States Next?
Still, it marks the moment age verification migrated from the platform to the phone (also linked to personal computers and tablets), which means the companies that decide who can reach adult content are no longer just the providers, but also device makers and maybe eventually, Google as well.
While Apple Support’s language suggests the iOS 26.4 age requirements aren’t yet in the U.S., four states that passed app store age verification legislation should be affected, with Texas, Utah, Louisiana, and California (next year) on the list, according to Privacyworld.com.
The United States has no direct federal equivalent to the UK’s Online Safety Act (yet) due to First Amendment challenges, but right wing lawmakers are still trying to restrict users and get information much in the same way with the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the broader package it’s been folded into called The KIDS Act. As Wet Ink has covered, they also continue to roll out proposals and bills to monitor users and punish platforms, including but not limited to The SCREEN Act and The PROTECT Act.
