Oklahoma Sen. Lankford Accuses Pornhub of Targeting Minors in Letter

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., sent a letter Friday to Montreal-based Aylo and its ownership group, Ottawa private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners, responding to correspondence the company sent last week to state and federal officials. Aylo’s letter went to lawmakers and officials across 25 states where site-based age verification laws are currently in effect.

Aylo’s original letter outlined its support for age verification while arguing that verification should take place through operating systems or mobile device settings. The company has opposed the site-by-site and state-by-state approach now used across much of the United States, as well as in countries including France and Spain.

In a sharply worded two-page letter addressed to Ethical Capital Partners Vice President of Compliance Solomon Friedman, a Canadian criminal defense attorney and academic, Lankford accused Aylo of having “no interest in protecting children.”

Lankford writes, “Pornhub’s letter suggests that tech companies should be responsible for protecting children from pornography. Lawmakers can and should hold tech companies accountable for the harm they pose to children. But that should not preclude state and federal lawmakers from holding platforms like Pornhub accountable for the harm it causes.

“Pornhub’s letter fails to say the quiet part out loud: Pornhub would lose customers if children were prohibited from viewing its content,” Lankford asserts.

Aylo disputed Lankford’s characterization in response, with a spokesperson calling the senator’s claims factually inaccurate.

“Senator Lankford and Pornhub completely agree—effective age verification needs to be in place to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate content on the internet,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The same statement was provided earlier Friday to Fox News Digital, which was the first news organization to receive Lankford’s letter from his office.

“Unfortunately, the way the Senator proposes has been proven to be ineffective everywhere it’s been attempted, including in Oklahoma,” the spokesperson added. The statement referred to the effects of Oklahoma’s age verification law, under which Aylo has restricted access to its websites for most users in the state, although the sites can still be reached through virtual private networks, or VPNs.

“Our site is one of [the] few that is currently complying with the law in Oklahoma, meaning the real risk to Oklahoma citizens of all ages lies on the hundreds of thousands of unregulated sites that remain accessible and are seeing increased traffic,” explained the Aylo spokesperson.

“We are the only free site that requires verification from uploaders as well as proof of consent from all depicted in content on our platform,” the spokesperson added. “The safety of our community is our top priority—this includes a zero-tolerance policy with respect to minors on our platform. We look forward to further addressing the Senator’s concerns in our reply to him.”

Aylo has not said whether its planned response to Lankford will be released publicly. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry trade organization, also disputed Lankford’s characterization of Aylo as deliberately targeting minors through marketing and sexually explicit material.

“No legitimate adult company is targeting minors,” stated Alison Boden, executive director of the FSC. “Aside from the multitude of moral and ethical issues, minor access is a financial and resource drain on adult businesses. Minor access drives up server and support costs, corrupts data, and provides no business value—minors are not consumers.”

She added, “Adult sites have been trying to block minors for over 20 years, developing protocols and systems, like the Restricted to Adults label, to make it easy for filters and devices to block our sites. We have every reason not to want minors on our platforms, and no reason to target them.”

The Restricted to Adults (RTA) label was developed and is managed by the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP). The organization also operates a privately funded reporting line for suspected child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse material.

Aylo uses the RTA label across its websites and submits reports to the CyberTipline program operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.