Australian Apple Users Regain Pornhub Access After Age Verification

LOS ANGELES—Aylo says adult users in Australia who access its platforms through Apple devices can once again use Pornhub after completing Apple’s age-verification process.

Alex Kekesi, Aylo’s vice president of brand and community, said the company supports device-based age verification as a way to restrict minors’ access to age-restricted material while limiting the amount of personal information users must provide to individual websites. Apple’s latest changes in Australia have led Aylo to restore access for eligible adults.

“For years, Aylo has advocated for device-based age verification as the most effective and privacy-protecting approach to help prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content online. With their recent Australian update, Apple set a benchmark by enabling child safety features automatically for users who have not verified that they are adults, ultimately, making every phone or tablet kid-safe as a starting point. As a result, today Aylo welcomes eligible age-confirmed Australian iOS users back to Pornhub.”

Kekesi said the company is taking a limited approach to restoring access, allowing Pornhub to serve users who have established their adult status through Apple’s Australian verification system.

“Aylo is taking a measured step to restore access to Pornhub for eligible adult users in Australia who have confirmed their age through Apple’s Australian age-verification process. In our view, Apple’s Australian device-level age-verification update offers one of the strongest and hardest-to-circumvent protections currently available for helping prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content. Like Aylo, this view is echoed by several child protection groups. Moving forward, age-verified iOS users in Australia reaching Pornhub will be served a standard adult user experience.”

Kekesi also pointed to Apple’s broader rollout of age-related requirements, saying the company’s approach demonstrates that age verification can be incorporated directly into the operating system rather than being handled separately by individual websites.

“We congratulate Apple on their extended age requirements for Apple accounts in Australia. This update was first rolled out in March in the United Kingdom, continued into Australia, and [then] globally. With these recent announcements, Apple is demonstrating they already have the available technology to verify age and the integrated security to access the device. The same is true for shared devices with accounts or profiles. This is the best and most appropriate place to integrate controls on age-restricted material.”

Kekesi further suggested that Apple’s upcoming hardware could play a role in making child-safety protections the default on devices, while also praising John Ternus, who recently became the company’s CEO.

“The iPhone 18 Pro & iPhone Duo could be the first devices that protect kids by default. With these changes, John Ternus, in his new role as CEO, is clearly making child safety Apple’s #1 priority. We welcome the leadership demonstrated by Apple’s new CEO and welcome the opportunity to work with Apple and other operating system manufacturers alike to keep kids and adults safe on all devices.”

Aylo is calling on operating-system companies to adopt similar systems across their products, arguing that users could establish their adult status once while leaving child-safety protections active by default for everyone else.

“Operating system companies, such as Apple, can make minors safe globally by giving every user the ability to identify as an adult and retaining child safety features enabled until then.”

The company said such an approach could also reduce the need for adults to repeatedly submit personal information to individual websites. It also argued that device-level controls could be more difficult to bypass than website-based systems.

“We believe phones, tablets, and computers could and should start as kid-safe devices by default. This method protects minors without requiring adults to surrender unnecessary personal information to multiple apps and websites. It also avoids creating systems that are easily circumvented through tools like VPNs.”

Aylo ultimately wants Apple to expand the system beyond its current markets and is also urging Google and Microsoft to adopt comparable measures.

“We urge Apple to expand the UK and Australia deployments globally and for Google and Microsoft to implement the same solution. The technology exists. A precedent exists. The responsibility now lies with Apple and platforms, like ours, to pursue solutions that truly protect children across the entire internet. We are determined to be part of this solution and want to collaborate with government, civil society, and tech partners to arrive at an effective kid-safe-by-default solution.”