VPN downloads have spiked as Pornhub’s decision to block Australian users in protest of new age verification laws has been called a “business decision” by the eSafety Commissioner.
Starting today, online pornography providers are required to check the ages of their users in Australia to restrict access to minors.
Many of the most popular pornographic websites in Australia are not complying with the law. Three of the top four most visited adult websites — XVIDEOS, xHamster and XNXX — still allow Australian users without verification of their age.
The one major exception is Canadian porn giant Aylo’s websites, which include Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and others, which all blocked Australian users from seeing their free adult video content on Friday.
“In response to Australia’s new age verification law, Aylo’s video sharing platforms will be restricting access to adult material before the deadline on March 9th,” a spokesperson for Aylo said.
Of those, Pornhub still remains technically accessible to Australian visitors, but only displays the platform’s “safe-for-work” content.
The current top videos on its home page are mostly clips or full interviews with clothed adult performers, with a small number of explicit videos with blurred thumbnails that are inaccessible.
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Since Friday, a number of virtual private network (VPN) applications have surged up the charts of most downloaded apps in Australia, suggesting that people are turning to VPNs to bypass the geoblocking restrictions.
App store tracking data service Sensor Tower’s rolling 7-day trending apps in the Australian iOS App Store includes a number of VPN apps, including VPN Unlimited Proxy (jumped 42 spots to #7) and Proton VPN (up 191 spots to #14).
Meanwhile, trend data for Google search shows that searches for VPNs increased on Friday. People who searched for “Pornhub” were also likely to search for “is porn banned in Australia” and “free vpn”, according to Google Trends.
The United Kingdom saw a similar increase in VPN downloads when its government introduced similar porn age check rules last year.
Aylo’s decision appeared to catch the federal government and the eSafety Commissioner’s office by surprise.
On Friday afternoon, an eSafety spokesperson reiterated the case for the new rules which, it noted, were drafted with the involvement of Aylo.
“The codes, the majority of which come into force on 9 March 2026, were drafted by representatives of the technology industry, including porn providers such as Aylo, to meet their legal obligations as set out by the Online Safety Act, and reflect what the technology industry itself considers appropriate community safeguards to protect children from this material,” they said in an email.
The spokesperson said that Aylo’s decision to block Australian users from explicit content did comply with the codes.
“Aylo has indicated it will only offer ‘safe for work’ content on its free services in the Australian market instead of implementing age-check requirements for age-restricted material on its free services. This is ultimately a business decision for them.”
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