French Users Flood VPNs After Pornhub Slams the Door on Age-Restricted Access
When porn meets bureaucracy, citizens get creative. France's latest digital clampdown—requiring age verification for adult sites—has sent VPN demand skyrocketing overnight. Pornhub's compliance move didn't just block users; it became a masterclass in unintended consequences.
Privacy tools are eating regulators' lunch—again. While lawmakers pat themselves on the back for 'protecting' citizens, tech-savvy users are voting with their clicks. The irony? This digital whack-a-mole game is probably funneling more traffic to sketchy offshore hosting—all while French ISPs lose eyeballs (and euros) to encrypted tunnels.
Meanwhile in finance land: Traders are still waiting for that 'blockchain verification' IPO. Any day now.
Instead of website-level age verification, Aylo and Proton support device-level verification as a more effective solution.
“All it requires is that the government enforce regulations on three companies–Apple, Google, and Microsoft–the three operating system manufacturers requiring age verification at the device level prior to accessing adult content,” Aylo said in a statement.
Digital restrictions have repeatedly driven users to adopt alternative technologies.
In December 2020, major credit card companies—including Mastercard, Visa and Discover—blocked payments to Pornhub after a New York Times investigation alleged the site hosted illegal content, including child abuse and nonconsensual videos.
Mastercard permanently ended its relationship with the platform, while Visa suspended payments pending further review. In response to its payment services being cut, Pornhub began accepting cryptocurrency for its premium subscription service.
The surge in VPN signups marked another front in the ongoing battle over anonymous access to adult content.
Lawmakers are increasingly turning to age verification laws to shield children from explicit material.
Other countries enacting these measures include the United Kingdom and Germany. In the U.S., 19 states—including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, and Texas have enacted age-verification measures in recent years.
Edited by Josh Quittner and Sebastian Sinclair
