Pornhub begs Apple, Google, Microsoft to fix “fundamentally flawed” system amidst drastic viewership drop

Pornhub’s viewership is rapidly declining due to new laws in the UK and the US. Now the porn site is urging big tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google to take action.

Pornhub’s head of legal sent a letter to three major tech companies, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, to see if they would be willing to solve the platform’s declining viewership issue.

The pornography platform has been forced to pull out of US states that have passed ID verification laws, similar to the UK’s Online Safety Act, which is also hindering Pornhub’s reach.

Because of these laws, which are essentially put in place to stop minors accessing harmful content, Pornhub’s viewership has decreased by 80% in the UK and the state of Louisiana, as Pornhub is one of the only platforms to comply with the new regulations, according to WIRED.

This giant dip in traffic has forced Pornhub to take action, which has led it to the source – big tech.

Anthony Penhale, the chief legal officer for Aylo, which owns porn sites like Pornhub, Brazzers, Redtube, and YouPorn, said in the letter that “site-based age assurance approaches” are “fundamentally flawed and counterproductive.

Instead, big tech companies should implement device-based verification systems across their app stores and operating systems, WIRED reports.

The letter also said that the ID verification system, where people have to present their IDs before accessing adult sites to prove they’re not underage, isn’t doing the job.

These methods “failed to achieve their primary objective: protecting minors from accessing age-inappropriate material online,” the letter alleges.

This may be true, as more children have witnessed pornography online in 2025 than in previous years, according to The Guardian.

Curious what others think about this story? Contribute your thoughts to the debate below.

Furthermore, the issue with ID verification via websites is that third-party vendors are in charge of keeping that data private.

Third-party data breaches are extremely common, with major companies experiencing breaches due to vulnerabilities in the platforms on which their data is hosted.

For example, threat actors claimed to have sensitive, internal data on Samsung that was obtained through a compromised contractor.

The letter urges big tech companies to implement device-based verification systems, as once the user’s age has been confirmed, it can be shared with other adult sites via APIs, essentially ensuring that no one who is underage can use any adult sites across the web.