What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Pornhub?’. Is it perhaps… porn? Understandable. However, there’s concern that the world’s biggest porn site may ‘avoid’ regulation on age-verification checks – due to come into force in January 2025 – by ‘claiming’ it’s not technically classified as a “provider” of pornography (per The Telegraph).
Confused? Let’s break it down. First, we need to get to grips with the Online Safety Act 2023 [OSA], a landmark legislation that is supposed to make the internet a safer place – especially for children – by regulating illegal and potentially harmful content.
While the OSA is technically passed into law, it’s up to Ofcom (the UK’s independent regulator for the communications industry) to implement it. The OSA requires Ofcom to “develop guidance and codes of practice” that will identify how online platforms, including pornography platforms, can adhere to the new laws.
Ofcom is taking a phased approach to implementing the OSA, meaning that certain areas of the legislation will be enforceable before others.
In this instance, sites that publish or display their own pornography (known as ‘part 5’ sites) will be required by Ofcom to implement “highly effective age assurances” – e.g. more than just a tick-box – to prove someone is over the age of 18, from January 2025.
According to The Telegraph, Aylo, the service provider that owns Pornhub, says the site falls under different criteria due to the fact it hosts user-to-user content – AKA content that its users upload and share – as opposed to producing and publishing their own.
Websites that host user-to-user pornographic content are known as ‘part 3’ sites under the OSA and will be subject to child safety duties, which Ofcom will enforce in July 2025. According to a spokesperson for Ofcom, it’s not a case of Pornhub ‘avoiding’ the age-verification checks as they will still need to adhere to them later in the year.
The spokesperson added, “The services that are caught by the Part 5 duties make up only a small proportion of online pornography services accessed in the UK, with the majority more likely to be caught under the child safety duties under Part 3 of the Act,” which is expected to come into force in July 2025.
However, some online safety experts are concerned about mainstream pornography sites being able to exploit loopholes within the legislation. The Age Verification Providers’ Association told Ofcom earlier this year (per The Telegraph): “To the general public, such sites would often be the first they think of when they consider pornographic sites, and are not obviously user-to-user services.
“We believe they should be clearly within scope for part 5.”
Iain Corby, the organisation’s head, added: “We expect Ofcom to produce unambiguous guidance that establishes a level playing field where all porn sites must require highly-effective age assurance simultaneously.”
Professor Clare McGlynn, a leading legal expert in online safety and a GLAMOUR campaign partner, notes that pornography platforms like Pornhub have a vested interest in delaying regulation, adding that the OSA has made “regulation of pornography even more complicated than before.”
McGlynn continues, “This news shows more than ever why we need a proactive, determined regulator which prioritises reducing the harms of mainstream pornography.”
Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, says, “We are monitoring developments and will always ensure our sites are compliant.”
GLAMOUR is campaigning for the government to introduce an Image-Based Abuse Bill in partnership with Jodie Campaigns, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, and Professor Clare McGlynn.
For more from Glamour UK’s Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
