French visitors to Pornhub and other major porn sites are being greeted with the famous painting "Liberty Leading the People" instead of adult content. The site's parent company Aylo has stopped operating in France—Pornhub's second-largest market, after the US—to protest a new French law requiring more stringent age verification for porn site users. Aylo, which also runs YouPorn and RedTube, calls the law a privacy risk, the BBC reports. The company wants age checks to happen at the device level, not by requiring users to enter credit card or government ID details.
Aylo isn't alone in facing regulatory heat—European officials are looking into whether major adult sites are protecting minors, and similar rules are cropping up elsewhere. Aylo has already exited several US states over age-check laws and faces upcoming requirements in the UK, where regulator Ofcom is pushing for stronger verification methods like facial detection. The company, owned by a Canadian private equity firm, says it supports age verification in general but objects to collecting sensitive personal data from users.
Aylo's compliance VP calls the French approach "dangerous" and "potentially privacy-infringing," arguing device manufacturers like Apple and Google could handle age checks without exposing users' information. In a post on X, Aurore Bergé, France's gender equality minister, said "Au revoir" to the company. She said the move means "there will be less violent, degrading, and humiliating content accessible to minors in France," CNN reports. "Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube refuse to comply with our legal framework and decide to leave," she wrote. "Good!" (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
