The U.K. communications regulator has launched an investigation into Pornhub to determine whether or not the website is failing to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content. The regulator, Ofcom, launched its probe on Tuesday into Pornhub’s owner, Aylo, which has its head office in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. In a statement, Ofcom said its investigation will look into whether the company is complying with provisions of the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, which requires websites to carry out “children’s access assessments” to determine whether their service is likely to be accessed by children. The act also requires them to implement age-verification checks to prevent children from accessing pornographic content. “We are concerned that Aylo may not have conducted sufficient due diligence and testing before implementing a new age assurance process on Pornhub in May 2026. As a result, we are concerned that the age assurance process that Aylo has implemented may not be highly effective at correctly determining whether or not a particular user is a child and therefore there is a risk that children are able to encounter pornographic content by means of the service,” Ofcom said in a statement. The regulator is concerned by Pornhub’s use of Apple’s age verification process for users in the U.K. Pornhub, the world’s largest pornography website, had been blocked in the U.K. until May 2026, after the site adopted Apple’s device-level age verification system that prevents users under 18 from accessing adult content by default. While Apple’s age-verification system is not under investigation, Ofcom will investigate whether Pornhub’s reliance on the third-party’s verification system can still allow minors to access pornography websites, in violation of the Online Safety Act. Aylo responded on Wednesday, saying in a statement that it intends to fully cooperate with the investigation. “We trust that the investigation will show Apple’s UK device-level age-verification update, which renders devices operating since iOS26.4 kid safe by default, offers one of the strongest and hardest to circumvent protections currently available for helping prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content,” Aylo said in a statement issued Wednesday. Aylo also noted that Ofcom had earlier this year praised Apple’s decision to use device-level verification system in the U.K., calling it “a real win for children and families.” “In June, the UK government announced its expectation that all operating system manufacturers should follow this same standard. In September, the UK government further announced it would introduce legislation requiring these device level controls and for them to be enabled by default, reinforcing the strength and importance of Apple’s implementation, making this a highly effective age assurance method,” Aylo added. Over the last several years, Pornhub has come under fire over allegations that it hosted child sexual abuse material and other illegal content on its site. It has denied the allegations. In August, Aylo agreed to pay US$120 million to victims of child sexual abuse material and to put in safeguards to prevent the trafficking of abuse content on the web. The Ofcom investigation also comes as parliamentarians in Ottawa are currently debating separate pieces of legislation — Bill S-209 and Bill C-34 — that aim to protect children from accessing online pornography.
