Pornhub returns to Australia but only for adults with Apple devices

Pornhub has returned to Australia, eight months after it went dark due to age verification laws, but only adults with Apple devices will be able to access the site.

Key points

• On Wednesday, parent firm Aylo stated it was restoring access for "eligible adult users in Australia" who have "confirmed their age through Apple's Australian age-verification process".
• After a rollout in the UK, apple lately introduced new age checks in Australia.
• Australians with Apple devices that have been "age-verified" will be "served a standard adult users experience", she remarked.
• Critics remarked there would be matters with data privacy and users finding ways to trick age-verification technologies such as facial recognition, digital IDs and credit card details.
• Aylo remarked it was returning to Australia as Apple has "set a benchmark" by setting default child safety features on all devices unless owners confirmed they are adults.

Meanwhile, the world's biggest porn site left the Australian market in March, saying new laws requiring users to prove they were over 18 would not protect children and "instead creates harms relating to data privacy" and exposure to content on non-compliant platforms.

In March, Australia introduced stricter laws requiring users to prove they were over 18 so as to access adult content such as porn, R-rated video games and sexually explicit AI chatbots.

In practice, the country's online safety regulator remarked the changes would protect children from harmful content and platforms would be fined for breaches.

This, in effect, makes "every phone or tablet kid-safe as a starting point, " it remarked.

"For years, Aylo has advocated for device-based age verification as the most effective and privacy-protecting approach to help prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content online, " remarked Aylo's vice-president of brand and community Alex Kekesi.

Kekesi continued that having devices with child safety features as a default meant adults don't have to "surrender unnecessary personal information to multiple apps and websites".

It additionally limits the usefulness of virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent age-verification technologies, she stated.

VPNs are commonly applied to trick a site into thinking a user is logging on from another country, giving the user access to the site.

Taken together, the developments around pornhub returns to Australia but only for adults with Apple devices point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.