According to Wired, Pornhub’s parent company Aylo sent letters to major tech firms pushing for device-based age verification instead of site-based methods. Anthony Penhale, Aylo’s chief legal officer, called current approaches “fundamentally flawed and counterproductive” after seeing 80% traffic drops in both Louisiana and the UK following compliance with local laws. Currently 25 US states have passed some form of ID verification, each with different requirements that often involve third-party services handling sensitive documents. The company revealed searches for unregulated adult sites have surged exponentially as users flee platforms that comply. Aylo specifically highlighted California’s new Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) as getting it “almost exactly right” by requiring app stores to verify ages before downloads.
Privacy Versus Protection
Here’s the thing: Pornhub actually has a point about the privacy risks. When you’re making people upload government IDs to random third-party verification services, you’re creating massive honeypots of sensitive data. And let’s be honest – how many people are comfortable handing over their driver’s license to access adult content? Basically, the current system creates exactly the kind of privacy nightmare that makes digital rights advocates nervous.
But there’s also the business reality. An 80% traffic drop is catastrophic for any platform. Pornhub isn’t being purely altruistic here – they’re watching their user base evaporate and searching for a solution that might actually work without destroying their business model. The company’s argument that users just migrate to less regulated sites seems pretty credible too. After all, if you’re determined to access adult content and one site makes you jump through hoops while another doesn’t, which are you choosing?
The Device-Based Solution
So what exactly are they proposing? Instead of every adult site implementing its own verification system, your phone or tablet would verify your age once and then share that signal with any site that needs it through an API. Think of it like age verification at the hardware level rather than the website level. Your device becomes your digital ID card.
This approach makes a lot of sense technically. But it raises its own questions. Who controls that API? How secure is the age signal? And what happens when someone shares a device? There’s also the question of whether tech giants want to become the gatekeepers for adult content access. Apple and Google might prefer to stay far away from that particular political minefield.
Broader Implications
Looking beyond just adult content, this debate touches on something much bigger: how do we verify age online without creating surveillance nightmares? The same technology that could keep minors off porn sites could eventually be used for social media, gaming, or even news access. We’re basically designing the future of digital identity here.
The California law they’re praising is interesting because it shifts responsibility to app stores rather than individual sites. That creates centralized choke points, which has both benefits and risks. On one hand, it’s more efficient. On the other, it gives enormous power to a handful of tech companies. And we’ve seen how that can play out with content moderation debates.
Ultimately, we’re watching a real-time experiment in digital age gating. The massive traffic drops show that current methods aren’t working well. But whether device-based verification becomes the standard or we end up with a patchwork of failed solutions remains to be seen. One thing’s clear though – as more states pass these laws, the pressure for a workable solution is only going to increase.
