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.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan proposal now before the U.S. Senate could move the United States closer to a nationwide digital age-assurance standard designed to prevent minors under 18 from accessing age-restricted online content.

The legislation is being led by Democratic Sens. Andy Kim of New Jersey and Adam Schiff of California, alongside Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming. Known as the Digital Age Assurance Act, the measure would create a federal and state compliance framework requiring age verification to take place at the operating-system level of internet-connected devices rather than through individual websites.

The proposal closely mirrors legislation approved by California lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2025. That law is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, and directs companies that develop and operate mobile device operating systems to implement a system allowing users to verify their ages efficiently.

Under that approach, users would complete age verification before downloading or purchasing apps and digital content through platforms such as Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Supporters say the California framework offers a model for the federal Digital Age Assurance Act, which they believe could balance online safety with protections for free expression.

“We owe it to parents and kids to put guardrails in place before more harm is done. The Digital Age Assurance Act puts kids’ data privacy first as we make sure Congress and tech companies do their part to make online spaces safer for our kids,” Kim said.

Lummis also voiced support for the legislation, saying, “In Wyoming, we believe protecting our kids and protecting our freedoms go hand in hand, and this bill proves you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.” Her comments come as many existing age-verification laws around the country rely on methods such as government-issued identification or AI-powered facial analysis.

“That’s why I’m proud to work with Senators Kim, Lummis, and Barrasso on a comprehensive federal age-assurance framework that follows California’s important work in this space and ensures that the digital content kids see is age-appropriate and that their privacy is protected from invasive data collection,” Schiff added.

Age-verification legislation has expanded rapidly at both the state and federal levels, advancing much faster than many observers in the adult entertainment and technology sectors had anticipated. More than half of U.S. states have now enacted some form of age-verification law or regulation, with many of the earliest measures adopted in Republican-led states, including Wyoming.

Although the first wave of laws aimed at adult entertainment websites largely emerged from conservative Republican lawmakers, age-verification proposals have since gained bipartisan support, reflecting broader efforts to establish verified, non-anonymous online environments.

In response, companies and organizations within the adult entertainment industry have sought approaches that reduce the amount of personal data collected by age-verification providers and other technology companies.

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), the trade organization representing the adult entertainment industry, has supported legislation built around a device-level verification model similar to the Senate proposal. Executive Director Alison Boden said she and members of her team met with Kim and his staff while the Digital Age Assurance Act was being drafted. She noted that it remains unclear whether the legislation will ultimately advance through Congress.

“We’re thrilled to see a bipartisan bill that takes an effective, device-based approach to proving age online,” Boden said. She added, however, that the current language may create concerns because it does not yet provide adults 18 and older with the same type of “privacy-preserving solution” envisioned for protecting minors.

If approved by both chambers of Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, the Digital Age Assurance Act would establish a nationwide device-based age-assurance system that generates “age brackets.” Apps and websites would receive those signals instead of collecting users’ exact ages.

The legislation would also limit how age-related information is collected, shared and used. It would prohibit the sale of children’s personal data to data brokers, ban its use for profiling or targeted advertising, and establish a national baseline for online child privacy protections while maintaining access to online services. Boden said the FSC is continuing discussions with lawmakers to ensure the age-bracket system also addresses privacy considerations for adults.

The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission authority to enforce its provisions alongside state attorneys general. Proposed penalties include civil fines of up to $2,500 for each negligent violation and up to $7,500 for each knowing or intentional violation, with those amounts potentially multiplied based on the number of affected children.

The proposal has also drawn interest because it aligns with the position of one of the industry’s most prominent supporters of device-based age verification.

“While we will not comment on hypotheticals, we are glad to see lawmakers recognize that kid-safe phones can provide a more consistent and privacy-protective way to help keep minors away from age-restricted content,” an Aylo spokesperson said. As site-level age-verification laws have taken effect in several jurisdictions, Aylo and its parent company, Ethical Capital Partners, have discontinued service in some states and countries rather than comply with certain requirements.

“Since April 2026, when Apple’s age verification solution was implemented in the U.K., Pornhub has experimented with Apple’s solution and has seen it successfully prevent minors from accessing adult content,” the spokesperson said, referring to Apple’s age-signal system introduced in the United Kingdom.

“It is our view that children in the U.K. using Apple devices with the most up-to-date version of iOS are benefiting from the strongest level of protection from age-inappropriate content online,” the spokesperson said. “Adult sites are blocked by default, and VPNs do not work to circumvent these blocks.

“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,” the spokesperson added. The company maintains that many existing site-level age-verification systems remain vulnerable to VPN use and continue to raise privacy concerns.

WASHINGTON — A key Senate committee is scheduled to consider the SCREEN Act during a markup session this week, advancing another effort to establish nationwide age verification requirements for people seeking access to adult content online.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah introduced the Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act in early 2025, marking his third attempt to move the legislation through Congress. Republican Rep. Mary Miller introduced a companion measure in the House. Even so, both bills remained dormant for roughly a year.

That changed in March, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee folded a revised version of the SCREEN Act into the broader Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, a package bringing together several online safety proposals. The House approved the KIDS Act in June, but the legislation has since run into resistance in the Senate. The objections have centered not on the SCREEN Act itself, but on disagreements over language contained in the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), another major proposal included in the package. The Senate version of KOSA is also scheduled for consideration during Wednesday’s markup session.

The Senate committee’s decision to place the original version of the SCREEN Act back on its agenda suggests lawmakers may be looking to advance individual online safety bills separately rather than continue pursuing them as part of the House’s broader KIDS Act package.

Under the SCREEN Act, violations of its age verification requirements would be treated as violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act’s ban on unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Civil penalties could reach as much as $10,000 for each violation.

Free Speech Coalition Director of Public Policy Mike Stabile described the SCREEN Act as a “particularly egregious” national age verification proposal.

“It would not only impact adult sites, but any platform that allows ‘harmful’ material, including X, Reddit and Amazon,” Stabile said, adding that Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden recently traveled to Washington to meet with lawmakers serving on the Senate committee.

“We’ve been especially aggressive in our efforts since it was placed on the Senate Commerce calendar last week,” Stabile said. “We’re currently working with our allies and sounding the alarm in and out of the industry on this bill. FSC members should be calling their senators telling them to oppose the SCREEN Act.”

The Free Speech Coalition has also created a resource to help people contact their representatives about the legislation and is encouraging members to use it and share it with colleagues, members and fans.

LOS ANGELES—Aylo is renewing its criticism of age verification laws in the United States, sending a letter Tuesday to dozens of governors, state lawmakers and attorneys general arguing that the measures are failing to protect minors online. The company, which owns Pornhub.com, addressed officials in states where age verification requirements are already being enforced. The letter was signed simply “Pornhub.”

“We are writing to you because, as a community, we are deeply concerned about the harm being caused by the performative, ineffective, and unenforceable age verification laws you have taken part in passing despite your intention of protecting minors,” the letter reads.

“Everyone subjected to these laws is more at risk than ever before of encountering online harm,” it continues. The letter also reiterates Aylo’s position that age verification can work effectively only when it is handled at the device level rather than by individual websites.

The letter states, “You have the power and the responsibility to mandate operating system providers like Apple, Microsoft and Google to render all mobile phones, tablets and computers child safe by enabling parental controls at the source and by default.” Device-based age verification remains a debated issue within the online adult entertainment industry, although broader discussions about child safety online have led to increased interest in the approach. Aylo also cited Apple’s implementation of operating system-level age verification features as an example it considers successful.

Several age verification laws now in force across the United States can be bypassed using commonly available technology, while some statutes also impose significant penalties for businesses that do not comply.

In Tennessee, for example, an operator of an adult website can face felony charges for violating the state’s age verification requirements.

Other laws rely on civil enforcement, allowing private individuals to file lawsuits seeking damages for alleged violations. Utah is among the states that authorize private parties to bring age verification claims before the courts.

Kansas saw similar litigation brought by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Those lawsuits were ultimately dismissed because of legal standing and jurisdictional issues.

“We can no longer accept laws that create the appearance of action while failing to address the challenge of keeping kids safe online,” the letter declares. “It is particularly concerning when these laws drive regulated business out of your jurisdictions and aid in creating a lush market for bad actors online, when a viable solution exists today.”

The company also pointed to its decision to block access to Pornhub and its other platforms in more than half of the United States. Those geographic restrictions, however, can be circumvented through widely available virtual private networks and proxy services.

Aylo has also made the letter publicly available in its entirety.

PARIS — France’s media regulator, Arcom, announced Wednesday that it has launched enforcement action against 31 adult websites that the agency says have not complied with age verification requirements under the country’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law.

In a statement, Arcom described the move as its largest age verification enforcement effort to date.

The regulator said it intends to use “various tools” available under French and European law to require the targeted services to introduce age verification measures.

The statement did not identify the websites or companies involved, nor did it specify where they are based. However, French technology news outlet BFM Tech reported that 13 websites are expected to be blocked or removed from search results through internet service providers, domain name resolution providers and search engines. According to that report, the sites include youjizz.com, pornoplus.com, amateurporn.com and hentaicity.com.

BFM Tech also reported that Arcom plans to coordinate with regulators in other European countries regarding 13 websites operating outside France. Those sites reportedly include balancetanude.fr, lebon.porn, tube8 and xhlive.net.

In June, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that France can require adult websites based in other EU member states to implement age verification under French law, provided the country follows European Union electronic commerce procedures. Those procedures require France to first ask the website’s home country to take appropriate measures to protect minors. If those measures are not adopted or enforced, France must then notify both the European Commission and the country of origin before introducing additional restrictions.

According to BFM Tech, Arcom is pursuing these actions because the websites did not respond to the regulator’s requests to implement age verification.

Five additional websites have received a “letter of observation,” the first step in Arcom’s enforcement process, and have 15 days to respond before further measures may be taken, according to BFM Tech. Those sites include borntobefuck, pornoone.com and xfrenchies.

Arcom said that since February 2025, 35 of the most-visited adult websites in France have either introduced age verification systems, stopped making pornographic content available in the country, or been blocked following requests from the regulator.

In September 2025, Arcom announced plans to broaden its enforcement of age verification requirements to include smaller adult websites. The latest enforcement actions appear to extend that initiative.

LONDON — The House of Lords has launched a new inquiry into the enforcement of age-verification requirements under the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act (OSA), inviting members of the public and industry stakeholders to weigh in on whether the law is delivering its intended results.

The review comes after multiple data breaches involving companies that provide age- and identity-verification services. One of the incidents involved a vendor responsible for handling age verification for Discord.

Those security breaches, along with ongoing concerns over user privacy, prompted the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee to open the inquiry on Monday. Rather than focusing solely on how quickly Ofcom has enforced the law, lawmakers are examining whether the compliance framework established by the legislation itself is functioning as intended.

Earlier this summer, Ofcom published its first annual report on age-verification implementation. The regulator rolled out its enforcement program last year and has since investigated dozens of adult entertainment platforms over alleged noncompliance while imposing substantial financial penalties on technology companies, including several based in the United States.

Even with those enforcement efforts underway, members of the committee say questions remain. Baroness Barbara Keeley, who chairs the Lords Communications and Digital Committee, said the Online Safety Act was introduced to establish a comprehensive framework for improving online safety across the United Kingdom, but concerns have been raised about whether it is achieving that goal.

Ofcom has also drawn criticism over both the way it has implemented the legislation and the consistency of its enforcement. Keeley said, “It is now clear that the Act is not working as well as it should. We want to understand why.” Her committee has invited evidence from stakeholders in the United Kingdom and abroad, including representatives of the adult entertainment industry.

The committee has outlined a broad scope for the inquiry. According to its call for evidence, “It will consider Ofcom’s interpretation, implementation and enforcement of the OSA’s provisions; whether these have led online services to make meaningful changes to their systems, processes and design; and the impact of the OSA on children’s and adults’ online experiences.

“The committee will also assess whether there are shortcomings in the OSA itself that limit the regime’s effectiveness and identify what further action may be required from the government, Ofcom, providers of regulated services or Parliament to drive improvements,” the announcement reads. “The inquiry will address the effectiveness of the regulatory framework established by the OSA, rather than re-examining the full range of issues considered during the development of the legislation.”

“Our new inquiry will look in detail at how the act has been implemented by Ofcom,” Keeley said.

“Any law is only as good as its enforcement, and we want to know if it is doing enough to hold tech platforms to account,” she added. “We will look at whether there are issues with the legislation itself that need to be addressed, both to improve online safety now and to ensure we are better prepared to tackle new harms that emerge in future.”

Written submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m. BST on Monday, Sept. 7. Among the questions the committee is asking is: “What evidence, if any, is there that U.K. users are less exposed to illegal content and activity since the OSA illegal content duties came into force?” Critics have also argued that the legislation has made it more difficult for online platforms to rely on their own trust and safety programs without government oversight.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has also published an analysis raising concerns about the law’s impact on user privacy.

Paige Collings, the EFF’s senior speech and privacy activist, wrote, “The Online Safety Act is a threat to the privacy of users, restricts free expression by arbitrating speech online, exposes users to algorithmic discrimination through face checks, and leaves millions of people without a personal device or form of identification excluded from accessing the internet.”

Despite those concerns, several organizations and industry representatives have said they plan to participate in the inquiry by submitting written evidence.

Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA), said, “We welcome this inquiry and agree with the committee chair’s view that ‘any law is only as good as its enforcement,’ and we have consistently reminded Ofcom that it is imperative that it creates a level playing field by enforcing at scale.”

He added, “And while ‘issues with the legislation itself’ are also in scope, having spent four and half years passing the Online Safety Act, recommendations on how to accelerate the impact of that existing law will have a far more immediate effect.”

The adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition (FSC), which has been critical of the Online Safety Act, also plans to provide evidence to Parliament.

“In the year since the Online Safety Act went into effect, some adult platforms have experienced overly aggressive enforcement by Ofcom despite making good faith efforts to comply, while some of the worst actors have exposed limitations of one country’s ability to police the entire internet,” said Alison Boden, executive director of the FSC.

“FSC will be submitting evidence to Parliament to help shape future legislation,” Boden added.

Attorney Corey Silverstein, whose practice focuses on the online adult entertainment industry, said he also supports the committee’s decision to review the law and its implementation.

“I strongly welcome the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee’s inquiry into the implementation and impact of the Online Safety Act,” Silverstein said. “Protecting children online is an important objective, but invoking that objective cannot exempt a law from scrutiny of whether it actually works—or of the harms it imposes on millions of law-abiding adults. The inquiry should examine both Ofcom’s implementation of the Act and the legislation’s underlying assumptions.”

He added, “Child safety and adult privacy are not mutually exclusive. Effective policy must protect both. I hope this inquiry produces an evidence-based reassessment of age-verification mandates and ensures that lawmakers do not repeat the same mistakes as other jurisdictions consider similar legislation.”

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, introduced new legislation Thursday in the U.S. Senate that would substantially change the federal record-keeping requirements for platforms that allow the publication and distribution of pornographic content online.

The proposal, titled the Preventing Rampant Online Technological and Criminal Trafficking (PROTECT) Act, would require platforms hosting explicit material to take what it describes as “reasonable steps” to verify the age and consent of people who upload content and those who appear in user-generated material, including content posted on social media platforms.

“Pornography sites need to do more to prevent the rampant child exploitation that is occurring on their platforms,” Lee said. “This bill will verify the ages and consent of the people appearing in explicit content—stopping abusive material from ever getting uploaded in the first place.” As currently drafted, the PROTECT Act would also revise the record-keeping requirements outlined in 18 U.S. Code § 2257, expanding beyond the long-established compliance standards followed by studios and producers under the U.S. Department of Justice.

Under Section 2257, federal law requires producers and studios to verify that performers are at least 18 years old and to maintain records documenting that verification.

Compliance with Section 2257 is generally handled by senior corporate executives, in-house or general counsel, or dedicated compliance officers.

The bill defines “covered platforms” as any “website, online service, online application, or mobile application … that serves the public … [and] … primarily provides a forum for user-generated content.” That definition is broad enough to encompass major social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X. Enforcing such requirements across platforms of that size could present significant logistical and financial challenges. The framework proposed in Lee’s legislation mirrors record-keeping measures adopted in several states, including North Carolina, where lawmakers approved HB 805, known as the “Prevent Sexual Exploitation of Women and Minors Act,” during the 2025 legislative session.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, initially vetoed HB 805, describing it as a “mean-spirited” measure that could be used to limit freedom of expression.

The North Carolina legislature later voted to override Stein’s veto, allowing the bill to become law. Following its enactment, adult industry representatives argued that the legislation was intended to weaken the legal foundation of the adult entertainment industry and existing contract law.

Critics, including Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition, said when the North Carolina law took effect that this type of legislation is “a calculated and purposeful attack on the adult industry, using a strategy that right-wing religious groups have floated for years.”

Under Lee’s proposal, producers and adult content creators would be required to maintain documentation demonstrating consent and compliance or face potential civil and criminal penalties. The legislation would also require platforms to verify the identity of users before allowing them to upload content and to confirm that individuals appearing in explicit material are adults. In addition, the bill calls for maintaining “explicit written evidence of consent for each sex act in which the individual engaged during the creation of the pornographic image,” according to the current text of the proposal.