A major adult website will cease accepting new registrations from users in the United Kingdom starting February 2.
Only individuals who have already completed age verification through existing accounts will maintain access to PornHub and its sister platforms, YouPorn and RedTube.
The Cyprus-based parent company Aylo declared it would “no longer participate in the failed system” established under the Online Safety Act.
Alex Kekesi, Aylo’s vice president of brand and community, stated: “Our sites, which host legal and regulated porn, will no longer be available in the UK to new users, but thousands of irresponsible porn sites will still be easy to access.”
The company argued the legislation has “made the internet more dangerous for minors and adults” whilst compromising user privacy.
Discussing the announcement on GB News, Tech Expert Mark Ellis said: “I think they’re making a stand, and I think they’ll need to reverse this. I think it’s a good way of gaining publicity, right?
“You might need publicity, but there is a way of doing it. There are plenty of third party age verification apps out there, and plenty of other sites are doing it. Even your big sites like X have found a way.
“They’re a smart company, they know what they’re doing, and I would suspect this is going to flip the other way, or maybe they’ll just offer a premium service that you need a credit card to buy, who knows.”
Mark Ellis has issued a stark VPN warning to parents as PornHub restricts UK users from February
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GB NEWS / GETTY
Pornhub will cease accepting new registrations from users in the United Kingdom starting February 2
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GETTY
Aylo also reported that visits to Pornhub from British users plummeted by 77 per cent following the introduction of mandatory age checks in July 2025.
The company contends that rather than protecting children, the verification requirements have simply redirected traffic towards unmoderated corners of the web.
Issuing a stark warning to parents over the use of VPNs, Mr Ellis told GB News: “VPN use boomed up to about 1.2million users in this country. It’s gone down to 900,000 and it started at about 600,000.
“But I think the most important thing here, if there’s one takeaway that people need to understand, is frankly if we want to download a VPN and go and access age restricted websites, that’s our business, but that’s not legal for under 18s.
“I have a phone, I have four children, they have phones. Can they install an app on their phone without my permission? Basic common sense, basic parental safety is I pay for the phone, I pay for the Sim, I control the access. There needs to be some education with parents.”
He made clear: “It’s no good just looking at the Australia ban and copying the same, parents need to understand the very most basic things, which is like hiding the car keys, right? You just need to do that.”
Mr Ellis told GB News that parents need to ‘understand the basics’ when protecting their children online
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GB NEWS
Aylo has urged technology giants Apple, Google and Microsoft to develop device-level age verification systems, arguing this approach would better protect user data while proving more effective.
Ofcom defended the age verification regime, maintaining that the measures are functioning as intended.
A spokesman for the regulator said: “Porn services have a choice between using age checks to protect users as required under the Act, or to block access to their sites in the UK.”
A spokesman for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology stated: “The Online Safety Act is clear: online pornographic services must stop children accessing this material by putting robust age assurance in place.”
