Pornhub has announced it will restrict access to its website for UK users from 2 February, citing tougher age-verification rules introduced under the Online Safety Act.
From that date, only people who already have a Pornhub account will be able to view content on the site.
The company said the move follows what it described as the failure of the new legal requirements to prevent children from accessing pornography online.
Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, previously said traffic to the site dropped by 77% after the age-check rules came into force in October.
Regulator Ofcom has maintained that the tougher checks are working as intended by stopping children from accidentally encountering explicit material.
Despite the restrictions, Pornhub remains the UK’s largest porn platform, according to web analytics firm Similarweb.
Aylo’s head of community and brand, Alex Kekesi, said limiting access had been a difficult decision, arguing that while regulated sites like Pornhub would no longer be available to new UK users, many unregulated porn sites would remain easy to reach.
She said the company initially complied with the law in the hope that effective enforcement would follow, but claimed that six months on, the objectives of the legislation had not been met.
Kekesi added that UK users attempting to access the site after 2 February would be met with a block instead of content. The same restrictions will apply to other Aylo-owned platforms, including YouPorn and Redtube.
Solomon Friedman of Ethical Capital Partners, which owns Aylo, said the company believed Ofcom was acting in good faith, but argued the legislation itself was flawed.
He said people could still easily access explicit material online and reiterated calls for device manufacturers such as Apple, Google and Microsoft to introduce age-control measures at the device level, which he said would be more effective and privacy-friendly.
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