Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube now blocked in France due to protests: Debate on EU age control

In France, the websites of Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube were reportedly taken offline today, June 4. Visitors to the aforementioned sites in France will now only see an image of "Liberty Leading the People", a painting by French artist Eugene Delacroix that commemorates the July Revolution of 1830. The aim here is to address the French public directly and draw attention to the dangers of the new law, according to the owner of the Pornhub consortium.

This concerns an EU requirement for age verification: Officially, minors are prohibited from accessing porn sites, but according to a report, over 2.3 million minors access adult portals every month. There is no real age control; when you visit the website, you are only asked if you are over 18 years old. Whether the consenting party is indeed an adult is not verified.

Hence, the EU states are planning to introduce mandatory age verification via ID card or credit card. Critics doubt the security and data protection measures of such a system, even if no data is supposed to be transferred to the platforms. Adult platforms in particular have a strong interest in ensuring that visitors feel anonymous. After all, hardly anyone wants data about their adult-platform viewing habits or their sexual preferences to be potentially leaked or made public.

Accordingly, the operators are attempting to warn the public about a "dangerous", "ineffective" and "privacy-violating" law and raise awareness in doing so. The EU, on the other hand, is unimpressed, with supporters arguing that it protects minors. In any case, investigations are underway against Pornhub, XNXX, XVideos and Stripchat due to a lack of age control.

Incidentally, an attempt to access one of the sites via a French VPN on June 4 at around 11:30 am succeeded without issue.