It seems that this is an " advantage " of the Apple ecosystem that will not be included in a press release from the Cupertino company: Pornhub 's parent company announced that it will rely on Apple's age verification feature for visitors to the site in the United Kingdom.
See also: Tenga: Sex toy manufacturer victim of data breach
Apple first introduced its own age verification feature in the UK in March, before expanding it to other countries. The move is aimed at complying with the growing trend of age verification legislation around the world for access to age-restricted websites and apps.
The company accidentally released it in a beta version of iOS, giving us a chance to try it out early. It took just 30 seconds to confirm an Apple account, long enough to verify that someone is at least 18 years old.
After it was officially released, not everyone found the process so simple, but Apple subsequently announced additional verification methods.
See also: Pornhub: Hackers stole activity data of Premium users
The UK's Internet Safety Act made it a legal requirement for adult websites to implement effective age verification methods. This was intended to prevent under-18s from accessing age-inappropriate content, but in reality it only ensured that teenagers knew how to use a VPN to fake their presence in another country.
As expected, many visitors to such sites were reluctant to provide credit card information or photo ID to verify their age, and Engadget reports that Pornhub's parent company, Aylo, now accepts Apple's age verification status.
“In our view, Apple’s device-level age verification update in the UK offers one of the strongest and most difficult-to-bypass protections currently available to prevent minors from accessing content that is inappropriate for their age,” Aylo wrote. Now, iOS users who have been verified as adults in the UK “will enjoy a standard adult user experience” when visiting Pornhub.
See also: EU: Pornhub & Stripchat investigation for insufficient protection of minors
Apple has been a reluctant participant in the age verification process, but many prefer to trust the iPhone maker to do this in a privacy-protecting way, rather than relying on whatever processes random app developers choose to adopt.
