Pornhub blocks access in France over age verification

Pornhub blocks access in France over age verification

The company owning Pornhub and two other adult websites announced on Tuesday during a press conference that it is blocking all three sites in France. Users attempting to access the site from within the country are met not with the homepage, but with a message accusing the state of endangering consumer privacy through intrusive and unreliable age verification mechanisms. As one of the five most visited websites in France, this is far from a niche corner of the internet. While the regulation is sold as child protection, the immediate result has been a surge in interest for VPNs.

Age verification: The 'Una manola' equivalent in Spain

France hasn't invented anything new. The requirement to verify age before accessing certain websites mirrors the mechanism Spain has long attempted to implement, colloquially dubbed una manola (a play on passport). Same excuse, same tool, different level of enforcement: here it's debated, there it's already blocked. French users now read that the system is intrusive and unreliable, a double adjective that summarizes the core issue: a mechanism that verifies age while simultaneously identifying the user stops being an age check and becomes a registry.

The underlying antiestéticar isn't about porn, but anonymity. It appears immediately upon scrutiny: if proving who you are to enter a website becomes normalized, the next step is trivial. First adult content—because no one wants to be identified for that—then whatever else trinc. Child protection is cited to bypass constitutional restrictions, summarized one participant: a textbook case of abuse of power. And the mechanism doesn't stop there: there are reports of a guitar pedal website becoming inaccessible due to a block by a private entity managing football rights. When a third party can shut your door, the door isn't yours.

VPN sign-ups jump 1,000% after block

Public response came within half an hour. Registrations for Proton's VPN service grew by 1,000% shortly after the block was announced, according to data released by the company itself: a larger increase than the one caused by TikTok's closure for US users. This is the best indicator of what peine. The law hasn't stopped French people from consuming; it has made them start paying to do so and learn how to bypass controls.

That is the economic paradox of the matter.