Pornhub is back in Australia — for certain users.
Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company, blocked Pornhub from the country back in March due to an age-verification law that requires explicit websites to verify users’ ages using personal data such as a facial scan and ID.
Aylo has responded to many of these laws, including most in the United States, by blocking Pornhub from those regions due to the burden of complying. Aylo has also stated that these laws don’t work because anyone can use a VPN to circumvent them or visit noncompliant websites instead.
But now, in Australia, Pornhub will be accessible to iOS users who have confirmed their age through Apple’s Australian age-verification process.
“With their recent Australian update, Apple set a benchmark by enabling child safety features automatically for users who have not verified that they are adults, ultimately, making every phone or tablet kid-safe as a starting point. As a result, today Aylo welcomes eligible age-confirmed Australian iOS users back to Pornhub,” Pornhub’s vice president of brand and community, Alex Kekesi, said in a statement shared with Mashable.
The child safety update first rolled out in March in the UK, and Pornhub allowed access there again as well after initially blocking access.
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo could be the first devices that protect children by default, Kekesi continued. She praised Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, for making child safety Apple’s “#1 priority.”
The tube site urges Apple to expand these developments globally, and Google and Microsoft to implement the same solution as well, Kekesi continued.
“The technology exists. A precedent exists. The responsibility now lies with Apple and platforms, like ours, to pursue solutions that truly protect children across the entire internet,” she said.
This is the latest time Pornhub and Aylo have advocated for device-level filters, which have long been the adult industry and free speech experts’ preferred solution to minors accessing porn sites.
Device-level filters, such as the iOS update, put child locks on the device itself. Many laws in the U.S. and globally mandate platform-level filters, in which websites and apps implement their own filters. This results in privacy and safety concerns, experts have told Mashable, as visitors have to hand over their personal data to unknown handlers. It also forces them to verify their age with each visit. Filters on the device, however, occur once.
“This method protects minors without requiring adults to surrender unnecessary personal information to multiple apps and websites. It also avoids creating systems that are easily circumvented through tools like VPNs,” Kekesi said.
In July, Pornhub sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers urging them to require Apple, Microsoft, and Google to enable device-level filters. It first sent a letter to the companies directly in Nov. 2025, calling on them to do it themselves.
Source: https://mashable.com/life/pornhub-returns-to-australia-for-some-apple-ios-users
