Pornhub to Limit Access for UK Users From Next Week
Pornhub has said it will limit access to its website for people in the UK starting next week. The company says this decision is because of stricter age-check rules brought in under the UK’s Online Safety Act.
From 2 February, only people who already have a Pornhub account will be able to view content on the site. New users in the UK will no longer be able to access it.
Pornhub is owned by Aylo. The company said the new age verification rules have not protected children as intended. Instead, Aylo believes the rules have pushed users towards unsafe and unregulated websites.
Aylo said that since the law changed in October, visits to Pornhub in the UK have dropped by 77%.
At the time, media regulator Ofcom said the new rules were working because they help stop children from seeing adult content by accident.
On Tuesday, an Ofcom spokesperson said porn websites have two choices: they must either use age checks to protect users, as required by law, or block access to their sites in the UK.
Ofcom also said it would continue talking with Aylo to understand why the company changed its position.
Alex Kekesi, head of community and brand at Aylo, said limiting access to UK users was a very difficult decision.
She said Pornhub and its partner sites host legal and regulated adult content. However, by blocking new users in the UK, many unsafe and irresponsible porn websites will still be easy to find online.
Kekesi said Aylo first followed the Online Safety Act rules because it believed Ofcom could properly enforce the law. But after six months of age checks, the company feels the law has failed to stop children from accessing adult content.
A spokesperson from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said the law is clear. Porn websites must stop children from accessing adult material by using strong age-check systems.
The spokesperson added that the law does not stop adults from viewing legal content. Websites do not need to leave the UK – they just need to make sure under-18s cannot access their content. The government said there are many ways companies can do this.
According to website tracker Similarweb, Pornhub is still the most popular porn website in the UK.
It was one of thousands of adult sites that added age checks last summer when the new rules came into force. Users were asked to prove they were over 18 before viewing content.
From 2 February, UK users trying to access Pornhub without an existing account will hit what Aylo described as a “wall”, meaning they will see a block instead of the website.
The same rules will also apply to other Aylo-owned websites, including YouPorn and Redtube.
No Single Solution
Solomon Friedman from Ethical Capital Partners, which owns Aylo, said the company believes Ofcom is trying to do its job properly.
He said the problem is not the regulator, but the law itself. According to Friedman, the law cannot succeed because people can still easily find porn online through other methods.
He said that even six months after the rules were introduced, anyone can find adult content by simply searching for it online.
Emma Drake, an online safety and privacy lawyer at Bird and Bird, said research quoted by Aylo also showed that overall adult use of porn websites has fallen.
She said if adult use has dropped, then children’s access may have dropped too.
Drake added that some people will always find ways around rules, such as using VPNs or visiting new websites. However, putting barriers on the most popular sites can still protect many children who would not make extra effort to bypass controls.
Aylo repeated its belief that device makers like Apple, Google, and Microsoft should handle age controls.
Friedman said controlling access at the device level would be more effective, protect privacy, and be easier to manage.
Ofcom replied that there is nothing stopping tech companies from creating age-check tools at the device level, as long as they are proven to work well.
However, Ofcom said its role is to enforce the law as it currently stands. The regulator added that the age-check rules are flexible, fair, and already widely used.
Cyber security expert Chelsea Jarvie said device-level controls could help but are not a complete solution.
She explained that Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) still allow people to get around age checks. Because of this, protecting children online needs multiple layers of control, not just one method.
VPNs hide a user’s real location and make it look like they are browsing from another country. Downloads of VPN apps in the UK increased sharply after age verification rules began on 25 July.
Recently, members of the House of Lords voted to support a change to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would ban VPN services for children.
Published: 28th January 2026
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