Since June 4, 2025, French people can no longer access Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn. Aylo, the Canadian giant behind the sites, has decided to suspend access in France to protest French regulations. These require pornographic sites to verify the age of all users before the June 6 deadline. Aylo has taken the SREN law by surprise by cutting off access to the sites in France.
Determined to stand up to the government, Aylo believes that the age verification requirement risks pushing users to alternative sites, which deliberately circumvent the regulations and do not check the age of the people in their videos. The legislation would ultimately do worse than better.
The VPN boom in France
To continue watching videos on Pornhub and the like, you absolutely must use a VPN. A virtual private network allows you to bypass geoblocks by masking your device's IP address and simulating a connection from another country. To filter internet users, Aylo relies on the devices' IP addresses.
Unsurprisingly, French internet users were quick to turn to VPN services to bypass the blockage. As seen on Google Trends, Google searches for VPN tools have exploded in France. On June 4th, around 4 p.m., the number of people searching for VPN on Google skyrocketed. The increase continued until 1 a.m. Among the regions with the most searches were Alsace, Picardy, and Île-de-France. On the morning of June 5th, searches for VPN remained slightly higher than average.
Proton VPN, a popular VPN service, reported seeing a 1000% increase in registrations immediately after Aylo blocked its sites in France. The firm specifies that "this is more than when TikTok blocked Americans.".
This is not the first time that the censorship of pornographic sites has been accompanied by a renewed interest in VPNs. In the United States, similar laws to those in France were implemented in several states, including Texas and Florida, last year. Here again, the suspension of sites benefited VPN services. Obviously, not all French people will use a VPN. Some Internet users will simply go to other adult sites to watch naughty videos.
0 Comments