Access to Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn Restricted in France, Anticipated Surge in VPN Utilization

VPNs have gained significant traction in France, primarily due to the recent accessibility issues of major adult websites such as Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn. This surge in interest is linked to a law enacted last year that mandates stricter age-verification technology for adult sites.

Since March 1, 1994, French law has prohibited the exposure of minors to pornographic content. To bolster this effort, a law passed in 2020 granted the French Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (ARCOM) the authority to issue warnings to non-compliant online services and seek judicial orders for access blocking when necessary.

The 2024 law focused on securing and regulating the digital environment (SREN) further enhanced ARCOM’s powers, enabling it to administratively block platforms that do not effectively prevent minors from accessing pornographic material.

On October 9, 2024, ARCOM adopted a technical framework, endorsed by the French Data Protection Agency (CNIL), which outlined the minimum requirements for age verification systems. These requirements are built on three foundational pillars:

– Reliability
– Third-party implementation
– Mandatory checks on each access

Services were allocated until January 9, 2025, to comply, with a transitional period extending to April 9, 2025, during which credit card-based verification could be temporarily accepted under specific conditions.

In reaction to these stringent regulations, major adult websites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube have suspended access in France, citing privacy and data security concerns regarding the mandated age verification methods.

This decision is particularly impactful for Pornhub, as France ranks as its second-largest market following the United States. Alex Kekesi, Vice President of Brand and Community at Aylo Holdings, the parent company of Pornhub, emphasized the importance of prioritizing citizen privacy and data protection while preventing minors from accessing adult content.

In the United States, a total of 19 states have enacted laws requiring pornographic sites to verify user age through government-issued IDs, facial scans, or similar methods. These regulations have prompted many of the largest adult websites, including Pornhub, to restrict access to users from those states rather than incur substantial costs for ID verification services.

As a result, users seeking to bypass access restrictions have increasingly turned to VPNs, which facilitate circumvention of such regulations. Although specific statistics for France are not publicly available, trends from other regions indicate significant shifts in user behavior:

– In Florida, following Pornhub’s access restrictions due to age verification laws, VPN demand surged by an extraordinary 1,150% within hours.
– In Texas, similar legislative measures led to an approximate 234.8% increase in VPN usage.

VPN solutions, such as Malwarebytes Privacy VPN, empower users to access previously restricted content by selecting locations without age verification requirements. The benefits include:

– No-log policy: User activity remains untracked and unrecorded.
– WireGuard protocol: Offers fast and secure connections, suitable for streaming.
– Extensive server network: A wide range of servers available in locations not subject to access restrictions.
– Robust encryption: Ensures safeguarding of online activities from unauthorized surveillance.