Pornhub restricting access for millions of users in huge crackdown to protect minors

Pornhub has announced tougher restrictions for people accessing the X-rated site from the UK in the wake of new laws requiring age verification.

In 2025, the Online Safety Act came into effect in the UK, which requires anyone who wishes to access adult material to verify their age using a third-party tool, aimed at helping child safety online.

But critics of the new rules have said they do very little to actually protect children from harmful material and could instead drive them to more dangerous corners of the internet, as well as worries around the security of the third-party ID tools.

Others have also voiced concern that the measures are a disguised attempt to restrict the internet as a place where information can be freely shared and to monitor citizens' online activity, and accused the government of using the stated aim of child safety to shut down legitimate criticism of the legislation.

Now, Pornhub has announced that as of February 2, UK users who have not previously verified their age will no longer be able to access the site.

Pornhub announced that it will no longer accept new accounts in the UK (d3sign/Getty)

Pornhub has said that it took the decision because the measures that the UK government introduced in the Online Safety Act are completely ineffective at their stated aim, which the government says is to protect children.

Aylo is Pornhub's parent company, and said that after the act passed, it experienced a drop of 77 percent in traffic from the UK, though this did not account for people in the country using a VPN.

Alex Kekesi, head of community and brand at Aylo, told the BBC: "We're going to further restrict our traffic, so if anything it's a lovely gift to the abundance of other sites that are going to remain open and accessible that are continuing to not age verify in the UK."

He added: "Our intention here is not to drive sign-ups."

In the digital age, VPNs are an important tool for whistleblowers (PixelVista/Getty)

The UK government has stuck by the legislation, and now has plans to restrict VPNs with ID verification.

VPNs allow someone to change where they appear to be online, and since the Online Safety Act came into effect, have been used to bypass the ID restrictions on adult sites.

But while this might be why they're in the public eye now, VPNs are not just used by people who want to view adult material.

VPNs help secure your personal information, and are used by activists, whistleblowers, and journalists as a way to protect their privacy and their safety.

Basically, they're a vital tool for people who want to hold those in power to account, and critics have argued that restricting them could have far-reaching negative effects in the UK.