In a statement provided to Ars, Pornhub owner Aylo said the company is “aware of the European Commission’s investigation” and is “fully committed to ensuring the safety of minors online. Our sites are fully RTA compliant as rated by the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP), and are strictly reserved for those of legal age only.”
The ASACP is a nonprofit that is funded largely by adult industry companies. It offers a Restricted To Adults (RTA) label for “any website that wishes to clearly and effectively label itself as being inappropriate for viewing by minors.” The label is supposed to make it easier for filtering software to block porn websites.
In the US, numerous states passed laws requiring age verification on porn websites. Pornhub and other platforms responded to the state laws by blocking access to their sites in those states.
Pornhub wants device-based verification
Pornhub’s website says it blocks access in US states with age verification laws because any effective method of verifying users’ ages “requires them to submit some form of personally identifiable information (‘PII), like a driver’s license.” This also “creates a substantial risk for identity theft” and “opens the door for the risk of data breaches,” Pornhub says.
Pornhub has said it is willing to use a device-based system that would “identify users at the source: by their device, or account on the device, and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification.” This kind of system would mean that users are only “verified once, through their operating system, not on each age-restricted site,” Pornhub says on its website.
“We will always comply with the law, but we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that protect the safety and security of users,” Aylo said in its statement today. “We believe that the real solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ ages at the point of access—the users’ devices—and for websites to deny or permit access to age-restricted materials based on that verification.”
