Pornhub has currently asked Apple and Google to take action after its traffic fell sharply due to the tougher age verification rules in multiple countries.
The platform have also said that new laws which would be requiring users to submit ID or go through third party checks would be the reason to have led to a major reduction in visitors.
According to the company, these rules are very difficult for users and also create major privacy concerns, which end up causing people to stop accessing the site.
Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, has also written to major tech companies suggesting a device-level age verification system.
In this proposed method, a user would verify their age once on their phone or computer, and then the device would simply confirm that the person is an adult whenever they visit an age-restricted site.
The company also continues to argue that this method would be safer, easier, and more private because users would not need to upload their IDs on every site they open.
The current system also requires every adult website to run its own verification check, which has created a lot of friction.
Many people still hesitate to upload any kind of documents or trust third-party verification services.
As a result, Pornhub says it has seen a steep fall in traffic in regions that introduced stronger age-checking rules.
Privacy experts on this topic are, however, divided.
Some believe that a single verification done at the device level could easily reduce the risk of data leaks, while others worry that it still leads to a kind of universal digital identity that would be stored on the phone, which could later be misused or expanded for other purposes.
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