Have any countries recently tightened or relaxed age-verification laws for pornography (2023–2025)?
Executive summary
Between 2023 and 2025, a clear global shift toward tightening age‑verification for online pornography occurred: the United Kingdom and France moved from legislative proposals to enforceable rules in 2024–25, Italy adopted emergency measures in 2023, and a wave of U.S. state laws beginning in 2023 produced patchwork requirements and legal pushback; at the same time some proposed measures stalled or were rolled back through litigation or parliamentary lapse, most notably in parts of Germany, Ireland and in at least one U.S. state court decision [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The UK and France: sweeping tightening turned operational in 2024–25
The UK’s Online Safety Act (passed in 2023) triggered Ofcom codes that require “high‑risk” services to introduce “highly effective” age verification for pornographic content, with enforcement actions and blocking mechanisms phased in by July 25, 2025, marking a decisive tightening of the regulatory regime [4] [5] [1]. France moved in parallel: regulators and decrees throughout 2024 set standards for robust age checks — including third‑party systems and, in practice, document or biometric checks — and French rules were implemented for sites and platforms during 2024–25 [3] [2] [5]. Both Paris and London framed moves as child‑protection measures, while regulators explicitly tied their work to broader EU frameworks such as the Digital Services Act [2] [5].
2. Italy, Germany and Ireland: a mixed picture of emergency fixes, legal fights and legislative lapse
Italy’s “Caivano” decree — produced in reaction to a high‑profile crime in 2023 — added an Article 13‑bis obliging online porn providers to verify majority age, an immediate tightening of duties for platforms operating in or into Italy [3]. In Germany a 2023 decision appeared to clear the way for telecom blocks, but by early 2025 telecom operators had sued the media regulator arguing that EU competence pre‑empted national blocking powers, creating legal uncertainty and a de‑facto relaxation where blocks were not consistently implemented [3]. Ireland introduced a Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill in July 2024 that would have required ISPs and app stores to enforce age checks, but that bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Dáil in January 2025 and is no longer active — effectively shelving a planned tightening [3].
3. United States: a cascade of state laws, industry reactions and court pushback
Beginning in 2023, multiple U.S. states adopted “porn ID” or age‑verification statutes — Utah, Louisiana, Virginia among early adopters — creating a scattershot tightening at the state level that left platforms and adult sites scrambling to comply or to geoblock users [6] [4]. Those laws produced immediate industry responses — including Pornhub temporarily blocking Utah users as protest — and litigation has limited enforcement in some cases: a federal judge enjoined enforcement of a Texas law in August 2023 on First Amendment grounds, illustrating how legal challenges served as a counterforce to state‑level tightening [4]. The net effect to 2025 was more restrictive lawmaking in many states, coupled with unresolved legal contests and operational fragmentation [6].
4. Technology, privacy advocates and the policy tradeoffs behind the headlines
Policymakers have increasingly tied age verification to identity‑assurance technology — from document checks to biometrics and EU‑level wallets — provoking privacy objections and warnings about security, anonymity loss and effectiveness; Australia’s eSafety Commission had earlier recommended against wholesale schemes on such grounds, and critics remain influential in public debates [4] [3] [2]. Regulators and industry trade groups advance child‑protection frames, while civil‑liberties organizations stress privacy and free‑speech risks, creating a predictable policy tug‑of‑war that shapes which measures get implemented, stalled, or litigated [4] [5].
Conclusion: tightened overall, but not uniformly enforced or unopposed
From 2023 through 2025 the dominant direction was toward tightening age‑verification for pornography — with the UK, France and several U.S. states moving from law to implementation and Italy adopting emergency measures — but legal challenges, industry resistance, and political lapses produced notable exceptions and implementation gaps in Germany, Ireland and selected U.S. jurisdictions, leaving the field both more regulated and more contested than it was in 2022 [1] [2] [3] [4].