Starting tomorrow, French citizens will be blocked from accessing pornographic websites YouPorn, Pornhub, and RedTube by their parent company Aylo, in protest against mandatory age verification for users.

Users attempting to access Pornhub or YouPorn will instead be greeted with a landing page detailing the company’s stance, accompanied by an image of the famous painting “Liberty Leading the People” (La Liberté guidant le peuple) by renowned French painter Eugène Delacroix.

“We have made the difficult decision to suspend access to our websites in France starting tomorrow afternoon and to use our platforms to address the French public directly,” said Aylo’s Vice President Alex Kekesi in an online press conference.

“So much the better”

There were reactions from Paris as well. French Minister for Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, wrote on X:

“Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube refuse to comply with our legal framework and have decided to leave. So much the better! There will be less violent, degrading, and humiliating content accessible to minors in France. Goodbye.”

Since March, France has required all pornographic websites—both within and outside the European Union—to verify that users are of legal age.

To verify the age of internet users visiting adult sites, the French government adopted a system based on the principle of “double anonymity.” This requires users to submit a photo or identification document to prove their age without revealing their identity.

Aylo, for its part, advocates for device- and operating system-level age verification.

“Google, Apple, and Microsoft all have the ability to verify a user’s age at the OS or device level and provide age information to any website or app,” said Solomon Friedman of Ethical Capital Partners, the investment fund that owns Aylo, calling the French measures “irrational and ineffective.”

“This is about protecting our children”

“Requiring websites to verify age is not about stigmatizing adults. It’s simply about protecting our children,” said Clara Chappaz, French Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, to the French news agency AFP.

“If Aylo prefers to exit France rather than comply with our laws, that’s their problem,” she added.

Aylo claims it has seven million daily visitors to its various adult platforms in France.

At the end of last month, the European Commission announced it had launched investigations into the protection of minors from pornographic content under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The Commission initiated formal proceedings against platforms Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos, which are suspected of violating the DSA.