Since Wednesday afternoon, access to adult streaming giants Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube has been suspended in France. This is a direct reaction to new French legislation that requires mandatory, certified age verification for each visit. While this measure aims to effectively protect minors, it also has (un)expected consequences for the digital market, particularly for VPN providers, who will emerge as the big winners from this situation.
The Age Verification Showdown
French law recently came into force and now requires pornographic sites to implement robust age verification measures that go well beyond a simple sworn statement. For Aylo, the parent company of these platforms, this obligation is a threat to the privacy of adults and a risk of sensitive data leakage. As a result, the group chose to suspend access to its platforms rather than comply with legislation deemed "symbolic, unnecessary, and dangerous." French Internet users are now greeted by a page displaying Marianne and a message denouncing the situation.
Faced with this unprecedented situation, one sector is rubbing its hands: VPN providers. In just a few clicks, anyone can mask their real location by routing their connection through servers located abroad. This hides the Internet user's French IP address, and the website visited only sees the location of the VPN server, in a country where access is not restricted. Since the announcement of the withdrawal of Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube from the French market, these VPNs have been a huge success.
VPN-related searches jumped in the first few hours after the shutdown, and the main players in the sector—such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and Surfshark—are already seeing their traffic soar. These companies, which specialize in online privacy and security, offer solutions accessible to everyone, sometimes free for a few days, to bypass the geographic restrictions imposed by the platforms.
The American experience shows that VPN use explodes as soon as major sites are blocked. In Texas, for example, Google searches for “Texas VPN” increased by more than 1,700% in 24 hours after Pornhub was disabled. In France, the phenomenon seems to be following the same trajectory, with a sharp increase in downloads and subscriptions to VPN offers.
Between the protection of minors and the privacy of adults
While the protection of minors is a laudable and necessary goal, the issue of respecting the privacy of adults remains at the heart of the debate. Age verification systems – even anonymized ones – arouse suspicion among some users who are worried about the security of their personal data. Experts point out that these measures could have the effect of diverting Internet users towards technical solutions such as VPNs, or towards unregulated sites.
The suspension of Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube in France illustrates the growing tensions between regulation, the protection of minors, and individual freedoms. VPN providers, for their part, are taking advantage of the situation, seeing their market expand with each new restriction. While the legislation aims to protect young people, it also reveals the limits of national regulation in the era of the globalized Internet, where technical solutions to circumvent blockages are just a click away.
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