Pornhub to restrict access for UK users from February

The regulator, Ofcom, said at the time tougher age checks were fulfilling their purpose of stopping children stumbling across inappropriate material.

The BBC has approached Ofcom for comment on Pornhub’s announcement.

Pornhub remains the UK’s largest porn platform, according to web tracker Similarweb.

Alex Kekesi, head of community and brand at Aylo, said in a statement that restricting access to Pornhub had been a “difficult decision”.

“Our sites, which host legal and regulated porn, will no longer be available in the UK to new users, but thousands of irresponsible porn sites will still be easy to access.”

She said the platform initially complied with OSA obligations “because we wanted to believe that a determined and prepared regulator in Ofcom could take poor legislation and manage to enforce compliance in a meaningful way”.

But six months after age check requirements were introduced to stop children accessing adult content, Kekesi said the company’s experience “strongly suggests that the OSA has failed to achieve that objective”.

Those attempting to access Pornhub in the UK after 2 February will effectively be met with “a wall” instead of site content, she told reporters in a press conference on Tuesday.

The same restrictions will apply to other porn sites owned by Aylo, including YouPorn and Redtube.