According to Mashable, Aylo’s chief legal officer Anthony Penhale sent letters to Apple, Google, and Microsoft in June 2025 arguing that site-based age verification methods are “fundamentally flawed and counterproductive.” The parent company of Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn claims current approaches requiring government IDs or facial scans on individual websites have failed to protect minors while impeding adults’ free speech rights. This push comes as half of U.S. states and countries like the UK have implemented site-based age verification laws. Aylo is now requesting that tech giants extend device-level age assurance through APIs that would determine age once on the device itself. Apple pointed to its June 2025 Newsroom update about expanded teen protections, while Google mentioned its Credential Manager API but noted adult services like Aylo have specific obligations.
The device-level vision
Here’s what Aylo is actually proposing: instead of you uploading your driver’s license every time you visit an adult website, your phone or computer would verify your age once. That verification would then create an age signal that gets sent to websites through an API. Basically, your device becomes your digital ID card. The Free Speech Coalition’s Mike Stabile has suggested this could work with RTA (Restricted to Adults) labels that signal to filters like Apple‘s built-in parental controls or third-party software like Net Nanny to block adult content automatically. It’s a “set it and forget it” approach rather than the current piecemeal verification that happens site by site.
Why site verification fails
Look, we’ve all seen how this plays out. You go to a website, it asks for your ID, and you either bounce or find workarounds. That’s exactly what’s happening with current age verification laws. Recent studies confirm what everyone suspected: these laws aren’t actually keeping minors off adult sites but are making it harder for adults to access legal content. And let’s be real – requiring people to hand over government IDs or facial scans to random websites is a privacy nightmare waiting to happen. When data breaches occur (and they always do), that sensitive information doesn’t just disappear. It’s out there forever.
The tech giant response
So how are Apple, Google, and Microsoft reacting? Well, Microsoft declined to comment entirely. Apple pointed to their June 2025 Newsroom update about expanding child protections to teens 13-17, plus a child safety white paper that essentially says the responsibility lies with websites hosting age-restricted content. Google mentioned their Credential Manager API but notably said services like Aylo “will always need to invest in specific tools” to meet their obligations. Translation: “We’ll provide some tools, but you guys still need to handle your own mess.”
The bigger picture
This isn’t just about porn sites – it’s about where we draw the line for online age verification. If device-level verification becomes standard for adult content, what stops it from being required for social media, gaming, or even news sites? And who gets to decide what content gets which age rating? The tech companies implementing the filters? Governments? There’s also the question of enforcement. Would this actually work better, or would tech-savvy teens still find ways around it? One thing’s clear: the current approach isn’t working, and everyone from free speech advocates to the adult industry itself agrees we need a better solution. The question is whether device-level verification is that solution or just creates a whole new set of problems.
